


Once More With Feeling

by PerfectlyAwful15



Category: Naruto
Genre: Anbu Hatake Kakashi, In the Beginning, Kakashi doesn’t know what a crush feels like, M/M, POV Alternating, Slow Burn, Smut, Time Travel
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-06-10
Updated: 2018-08-07
Packaged: 2019-05-20 10:13:24
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 8
Words: 57,561
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14892684
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/PerfectlyAwful15/pseuds/PerfectlyAwful15
Summary: The rational part of Tsunade had rejected the idea because it didn’t make any sense. Naruto was a thirteen year old genin who was currently traveling with Jiraiya, not some twenty-something year old man who had been in a coma for three months.She felt a thrill of excitement shoot through her when one of the gashes on the man’s chest slowly, so very slowly, knitted itself back together. She allowed herself a small smile before she went back to work with renewed vigor. She would heal the brat till he was as good as new and then she was going to beat him up until he gave her a good explanation for what the hell was going on.





	1. The End of the Beginning

**Author's Note:**

> Full disclosure; I never finished the series. This is not going to be a completely accurate representation of the actual cannon story, mostly because I have no idea what happens after the start of the fourth shinobi world war and it has been so long since I saw the start of the series. Please excuse any inaccuracies. 
> 
> This is a WIP. I have a vague idea of where I want this story to go, but I'm mostly just writing it for fun.

A gasp is torn from Naruto as he feels a tug at the base of his skull.

“No!” he screams, swinging his head around to look into the smoke surrounding him. But his efforts are futile; the smoke is so dense that he can barely see a foot in front of him.

A movement to his right catches his eye and his attention is pulled back to the man he has been fighting for what felt like days now. A flash of silver is all the warning he gets before a sword swings down at his head. Naruto lifts his own sword, or a sword that he had taken from one of the dead shinobi littering the ground, and just barely manages to block the blow. A sharp CLANG resounds through the air and Naruto leaps backwards out of the range of the deadly electrified blade.

Focusing chakra into his left hand, Naruto slashes in front of him, producing a burst of wind that blows away the smoke. For the first time in hours, he has a clear look at his surroundings. It’s a lot worse than he thought.

Konoha had been completely leveled and burned. In fact, if Naruto hadn’t know any better, he would have said that he wasn’t even standing in the middle of the village. Where once tall and proud buildings stood, now only piles of rubble lay. Where the beautifully paved streets once were, now there were only craters and cracks.

Even with all his exposure to war and death over the past few years, Naruto still flinches at the sight of all the bodies. Konoha had been their last stronghold, the one place left where civilians could live in relative peace. Or at least until yesterday. Naruto closes his eyes for just a brief moment, the morbid sight too much. Innocent civilians lay scattered around, their limbs sprawled out in every direction, their skin burnt black. They never stood a chance.

When Madara, Obito and Sasuke had invaded Konoha yesterday morning with their own army of Susanoo and reanimated corpses, they hadn’t come to merely kill the remaining shinobi; they had come to eradicate every living thing.

The numbers of the Shinobi Allied Force had dwindled dangerously over the past few years and it had been impossible for some time now to tell which of the former Great Nations had lost the most shinobi. Birth villages was something that just wasn't important anymore. Especially after Kiri fell, life had become more simple in some ways; you were either shinobi or civilian.

Konoha had been the last Hidden Village. A place which they all had come to call home. And within minutes of the Uchiha’s attack there had been nothing to protect anymore.

No, the battle that they had been fighting for the past few hours hadn’t been for the sake of their home or for honor or to protect anyone; they all had been fighting for their fallen friends, their lost villages, and their failed sense of duty as a shinobi. A single minded killing intent had grasped the remaining Allied Forces and only in death did it release them.

Naruto looked at the sword-wielding man in front of him and felt his heart clench. He had tried; he had tried so hard to fulfill the promise he made to Sakura all those years ago and in the end he had failed. He had completely and utterly failed.

The red-head had long given up on trying to bring Sasuke back; the man in front of him wasn’t Sasuke anymore. The man in front of him was a cold blooded murderer; a twisted perversion of his teammate. His friend had died long ago.

Naruto still remembered the first time he began to have doubts that he couldn’t save Sasuke, wouldn’t be able to make him see sense again. An ANBU team had found Kiba, Genma and Shino laid out by a river with the Uchiha crest carved into their chests and their eyes gouged out. Even then, Naruto had thought, hoped, that it was just Madara, by then it had been the real Madara, twisting Sasuke’s mind, forcing him to do such cruel things.

But then Sasuke had really crossed a line.

It had taken them almost two week to find all of Tsunade’s body. Sasuke had even been kind enough to attach a note to each piece; each with a name on it, a promise of his next targets. Next fell Lee and Gai then Hinata, Izumo and Kotetsu, Anko, Tenten and Sakura…God Sakura!

Sakura who had finally allowed herself to move on, who had fallen in love with another man who had returned her affections with all his heart. They had been happy together, truly happy, even through all the pain of the war.

But then, without any warning, she had been captured. No one could stop her beloved from rushing off to try and save her despite him knowing it was a suicide mission. Even now, as the last of the world burned to the ground around him, Naruto still isn’t exactly sure what Sasuke did to her.

He hadn’t killed her, he had even let her go; but she hadn’t been the same. She would just sit there with this dead look in her eyes for weeks, not eating or sleeping.

No one had had the heart to stop Ino when she finally caved and slit her friends throat. Yamato had never returned from his suicide mission but everyone knew, knew with a dreaded certainty, that he had found her.

Naruto felt another tug in the back of his head again, this time more insistent. His eyes started to sting but he wasn’t going to cry. He hadn’t let his grief get a grip on him in years and he refused to give in now.

The tug only grows more insistent and Naruto takes a deep breath, desperately trying to ground himself. He glares at the man a few meters in front of him. “I don’t have time for this!” he screams.

He drops down onto all fours and lets the remainder of Kurama’s chakra seep out just enough to enter Kurama Mode. He tries not to think about the fact that the other bijuus in him are depleted, worn out from destroying dozens of Susanoo and fending off Obito’s relentless attacks. He hasn’t heard anyone’s voice but Kurama’s since they finally fell Obito a few hours ago.

Sasuke let out an empty, mocking laugh and a surge of lightning runs down his blade.

“Naruto,” Sasuke says, slowly shaking his head as if he were disappointed.

Naruto lets out a half scream half growl of frustration. He really doesn’t have time for this; he needs to get to Madara and Kakashi.

“Look at you Naruto. You’re pathetic. Acting like the animal that you are; just like that other nuisance of a jinchuriki.”

Naruto freezes. _Gaara_.

Gaara had been the final straw for him. When Gaara had died, died right in his arms, he had shoved and locked everything away into the deepest recesses of his soul. Emotions, feelings, anything that might get in the way of his goal of killing Madara, Naruto had shoved them all so far down that they had eventually disappeared. Of course, he had made sure to avenge his brother’s death first.

Sasuke had killed Gaara so Naruto had killed Sasuke. Only to find out, to his horror, that Sasuke had taken after the Snake Sannin and could ‘rebirth’ himself. One hundred times, they later learned, could Sasuke die and come back to life. One hundred times they would have to kill him to truly kill him.

In his blind fury over Gaara’s murder Naruto managed to kill Sasuke almost fifty two times; at least that’s what he was told when he woke up in an infirmary tent a week later.

“You shut up!” Naruto yells. “How dare you even think about him!”

Naruto lunges forward, bringing the mighty winds of a hurricane behind him, and slams his fist into Sasuke’s chest. He feels the ribcage cave beneath his knuckles and watches as the light leaves Sasuke’s surprised eyes.

His Sasuke, his friend, would have never left such an opening.

Five seconds. Naruto has five seconds before this caricature of Sasuke is as good as new again.

He leaps off the now-dead body and out of the small crater he’s created. He thrusts his senses out and finds the last two chakra signatures left on the battlefield and full out sprints towards them. He feels another sharp tug in the back of his head.

“Hang on Kakashi, please hang on,” he whispers to himself as he runs by more carnage, more bodies.

He stumbles for a second and knows that his wounds are catching up to him, but he doesn't stop running. He’s honestly surprised that he’s still even standing. He’s not sure how much blood he’s lost in the past few hours but it’s pretty obvious from how lightheaded he’s feeling that it’s more than healthy. Kurama’s chakra is probably the only thing keeping his insides, well, inside.

Naruto curses under his breath. He can deal with a lot of injuries, but the hole in his chest is really pushing it. How many hours had it been since he got it? Sasuke had got a lucky shot in with that damn sword of his and had stabbed right through him. It was a grim reminder of how far he had gone in the past few years when he hadn’t died or felt much pain from the wound.

There! Two figures were doing a complex and deadly dance; moving so fast that if Naruto had been anyone else he wouldn’t have been able to keep up. Naruto squashes the desire to cry out in relief as he sees that his sensei cum teammate is still alive.

Objectively, he had known he was, but the strength of the pain in the back of his head was telling him that the Copy Nin was pushing the boundaries of life and death.

One of the figures jumps backwards and skids to a halt next to him. Naruto steadies his teammate and receives a grateful nod in return.

“Sasuke?” Kakashi asks, his voice scratchy.

His question is answered a second later when another figure blurs ahead of them to stand next to Madara. Two Eternal Mangekyou Sharingan and two Rinnegan orbs stare at them.

“Together?” Naruto whispers to the man at his side, his own blood-red eyes never leaving the two Uchiha’s in front of them.

“Of course,” Kakashi replies. The familiar sound of a hundred screeching birds fills the air as Naruto condenses his red-black chakra into a ball in his hand. With movements that speak of all the countless times they have fought side by side, Naruto and Kakashi dash straight at Madara.

Naruto feels the stinging burn of Kakashi’s Raikiri on his back and grits his teeth against the pain. Kakashi runs a half step behind him, now a step behind him, now a step and half behind him.

Naruto keeps running until he feels Kakashi jump backwards and then slams his beast ball into the ground a few feet in front of two Uchiha’s. Kurama growls in his head and he thinks he hears eight other faint voices but it could just be the blood loss. Then, several things happened instantaneously.

The ground starts to bend and stretch like rubber under Naruto as all the air is sucked away and replaced with an ear-popping pressure. It’s silent for a moment, even the crackling of the burning buildings having stopped, and then not even an eighth of a second later Naruto’s body is jerked backwards from the place Kakashi’s Raikiri had marked him. A half second later and the world seems to explode from where Naruto had just been.

The shock wave from the explosion knocks Naruto back faster and he crashes into Kakashi. He wraps his arms and chakra tails around the man and draws on the remaining bijuu chakra he has to cover them, hopefully protecting them from the worst of the blast.

Naruto pushes his head into Kakashi’s shoulder as chunks of falling earth and debris rain down on his back. It seemed to last forever but when Naruto finally thinks its safe he cautiously lifts his head up and looks around. The smoke and dust have filled the sky again and Naruto can only just make out the giant crater behind him.

“Do you think we got them?” he whispers into Kakashi’s ear, not getting off of the man. There’s a moment of strained silence as they both listen for any signs of movement. The world is silent.

“No,” Kakashi whispers back. “If only it were that easy. The only thing we did was buy ourselves a little time.”

Naruto slowly lifts himself off the masked man and falls out of his Kurama Mode, unable to keep it up any longer. He gingerly sits up and hisses in pain; he feels like every bone in his body has been broken. The blood running down into his eyes isn’t a good sign and though Naruto has learned to deal with pain over the years, can ignore all but the most fatal of wounds, as he sits there covered in dirt and blood, the last of his chakra gone, he feels a dull, choking pain in his chest.

“Damn,” he whispers, his eyes watering up.

It was only fitting that his suppressed emotions finally come forth when the only one in the world to see his tears is Kakashi.

“How did we let this happen? How _could_ we let this happen? Where did we go wrong?” Naruto says, speaking more to himself than to the man sitting up next to him.

He lets out a yelp of surprise at the singing burn of Raikiri, only this time it’s everywhere. Naruto falls back onto the ground, no longer having the strength to hold up against even the weakest of jutsu.

“Ka-Kakashi! Wh-what a-are..?” Naruto barely manages to grit out as the blue-white electricity wraps around and pins his body to the ground. He can barely focus on the masked face next to him.

“I’m so sorry Naruto. I’ve failed you in every single way that a mentor and friend can. Please, _please_ let me try to redeem myself. I don’t know what to do anymore and this is the only thing that I can think of. You can fix this, if there is one thing I’ve learned it’s to believe in you. Please…forgive me.” Kakashi whispers softly, his voice cracking.

He should probably feel betrayed but it’s only confusion that burns through him. But before he can say anything on the matter, his body starts to convulse. The electricity pinning him down feels like its soaking into his body, flooding his burned out chakra coils. He watches as Kakashi pulls something from the inside of his tattered flak jacket. A seal of some kind? Naruto eyes widen in fear as he recognizes parts of the seal. What the hell was Kakashi doing? Was he giving up?

There is no mistaking that the seal was for draining bijuu chakra, though Naruto has never seen this particular one before.

He and Gaara had spent years researching, trying to find a way to release or recapture the tailed beasts that had been captured by Madara. Though they had never found out a way to get the actually bijuu back, they had developed a series of seals to extract their massive chakra. To specifically pull the eight other demons chakra into himself.

Naruto knows the seals well, had inked them on his body himself, and the one Kakashi holds now looks like some kind of variation of the seals.

What was Kakashi trying to do? Naruto doesn’t have enough chakra to do anything other than the simplest of jutsu. The seal wouldn’t be able to draw anything from him. What would the seal accomplish?

“I believe in you Naruto,” Kakashi says as he gently places the seal on his chest, ignoring the electricity covering Naruto, even as it shocked the person whom had cast it.

For a moment nothing happens and all Naruto can do is stare into sad, hollow, pain-filled mismatched eyes. A single, clear tear falls from one grey eye and a drop of blood falls from a red one.

“Please…forgive me,” was the last thing Naruto heard.

A masked face, the face underneath still a mystery, was that thing Naruto saw.


	2. Blessing in Disguise

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The start of this story has alternating POV but it will eventually settle down, don't worry!

Uzuki Yugao kicks her feet back and forth and watches the sun as it just begins to peek over the horizon, its rays slicing across the still dark sky. Somewhere close by, a bird shrills into the quiet morning. A smile slowly creeps upon her face at the sound.

With a content sigh, she hops off the branch she's been waiting in and lands silently on the leaf covered ground. She pushes her porcelain cat mask around to the back of her head and cups her hands around her mouth. A series of high pitched chirping sounds filled the air, almost indistinguishable from a sparrow's call. She leans against a tree and waits, her smile growing and she almost feels giddy, though she would be hard pressed to admit it.

The faint crunching of leaves comes from her slight left and despite all of her shinobi instincts going off, she doesn’t move to attack or defend herself. A few seconds later a raspy cough comes from the same direction.

Yugao can’t help it; she lets out a small laugh. “Darling, I would be able to sense you coming even if you were a million miles away.”

The crunching of leaves gets louder and a moment later a Konoha shinobi appears from the dense trees.

“Yugao,” Hayate says, an affectionate smile on his face.

Yugao walks up to the man that makes her feel like the luckiest kunoichi in the world. Warm, strong arms wrap around her waist as she buries her face into Hayate’s shoulder, inhaling his scent. They weren’t normally so open with their affection, even alone; Yugao with her strict ANBU training always just beneath the surface and Hayate with his discomfort of being physically close to another person due to his illness. However, they haven’t seen each other in over three weeks, both of them busy on their respective assignments. And even though Yugao had returned to Konoha two days ago, this is the first time she has had an opportunity to meet with him.

She couldn’t remember when it had happened exactly, but some time ago they had mutually agreed that no matter what, after a mission they would meet as soon as possible at this particular tree. The tree where they had first met each other. The tree that Hayate had bluntly told her he loved her under. The tree that she had cried in, held in his arms, after he told her that his illness couldn’t be cured. The same tree under which they had vowed to never leave each other’s side. It was _their_ tree. And once again it was providing her with a sense of comfort as Hayate silently held her against his chest.

No words needed to be spoken to each other. _I missed you. Don’t leave me. I was scared this would be the one to take you from me. I love you._ It was all heard without either of them having to say a single word.

As always, Hayate is the first to pull away but he grabs one of her hands and glances upwards.

Yugao smiles, a seeming constant around Hayate, and they both jump up to sit next to each other on one of the thicker branches, leaning their backs against the trunk. They sit together in silence, only interrupted by the occasional cough from Hayate, just soaking up the presence of one other and reassuring themselves that the other was alright.

It wasn’t until the sun completely breaks free from the horizon that the silence is broken. “I wasn’t that bad. I think I got about two meters closer this time before I made a noise,” Hayate says.

Yugao glances over and sees the relaxed, almost bored expression on Hayate’s face. It had taken her a while to decipher his ‘I’m-serious’ face from his ‘I’m-joking-around-with-you’ face.

“Oh yes, I suppose it’s a common mistake to get you and an elephant confused,” Yugao says, carefully keeping her voice and face blank.

Hayate’s dark eyes slowly slide over to look at her. “Very common. You’re the third person this week to mistake me for some kind of obscenely large animal.”

Hayate’s deadpan expression is the last straw for Yugao and she bursts into laughter. It was a well-known fact among the jounin and other high-ranking ninja in Konoha that Gekko Hayate was probably the worst shinobi ever at stealth; his chronic cough only adding to the problem. Yugao would never admit it, at the risk of wounding the man’s pride, but it had been Hayate’s complete and utter helplessness at sneaking around that had first attracted her to him. Still, as much as she thought it was one of his more enduring characteristics, she also feared it. Yugao just knew his inability to be stealthy would be the death of him. At the moment however, it only emphasized Hayate’s adorableness; another thing she would never say to his face.

When she finally got her laughter under control, with only a few giggles slipping through, she looks over at her lover. His lips  pull up into a small smile and his tired eyes twinkle with mirth and affection. Even after all this time they‘ve been together, it still stuns her that someone could look at her with such affection. 

“So did I miss anything worth mentioning?” she asks. She hasn’t been in the village for over a week and like every other shinobi in the world she likes to gossip, or ‘be in touch with current events’, to put it more professionally.

Hayate tilts his head back and stares at the brightening sky for a moment. The light emphasizes the bags under his eyes and she wonders when the last time he had a decent night’s sleep was.

“Nothing particularly noteworthy. Asuma still thinks he’s being discreet about trying to get Kurenai’s attention, Gai is still Gai, Genma and Anko left a few days ago on a mission to Kumo and should be back by tomorrow, Ibiki’s added to the betting pool for how many genins will become chunins this year, Hokage-sama’s still about two weeks behind on his paperwork, and Kakashi’s AWOL again.” Hayate says, leaning his head back to rest against the tree trunk.

Yugao holds back a sigh and restrains herself from commenting on the Copy ninja. The man was eccentric at best and just plain crazy at worst; even by shinobi standards. Though she will admit that she prefers his carefree jounin attitude more than when he had been her strict and aloof ANBU captain. It had been a shock to anyone who even remotely knew the jounin when he had passed a genin team a few months ago. Even more surprising were the kids that consisted of Team 7: a pink-haired joke-of-a-kunoichi, the Last Uchiha, and the Kyuubi container. It was quite possibly one of the universe’s greater jokes on humanity.

“Oh, and apparently Kakashi has entered his team into the Chunin Exams,” Hayate says, turning his head to look at her reaction.

“That’s…unexpected. It’s unusual that a jounin-sensei enters their team into the Exams so soon after they’ve graduated from the Academy. Then again, this is Kakashi-san we’re talking about.”

“Hmm,” Hayate gives a small shrug, “Asuma and Kurenai also entered their teams. Must be some kind of bug going around.” He gives a husky chuckle followed by a cough and then goes back to staring at the sky.

Yugao’s eyes widen. “So all of the new genin teams are being entered?”

“Yeah, they’re calling them the Rookie Nine. Their jounin’s have an awful lot of confidence in them. At least it won’t be boring.”

“Geez,” Yugao sighs. “Those poor kids are going to be slaughtered.”

Hayate chuckles softly. “And I haven’t even told you the best part yet; Ibiki-san is going to be the proctor for the first stage of the Exam.”

Yugao flinches. Now she _knows_ those poor rookies are going to be steam-rolled, hell, she knows full-grown jounin who tremble after a minute alone with the Head of the Interrogation Department. She leans forward to look at her partner. “Jeez, what is Hokage-sama thinking? Who are the other proctor? Hopefully they won’t be so…intense.”

Yugao watches as Hayate’s head tilts to the side.

She mirrors his movements.

He gives a small smile.

She raises an eyebrow.

His smile grows and the corner of his eyes crinkle.

She sits up straighter.

He nods, then coughs.

Yugao slaps his shoulder lightly. “You’re just now telling me! Congratulations! Which part?”

If there was one thing she loved the most about the sickly jounin it was his ability to understand her. It was rare to find someone who could understand you on such a level but for her and Hayate it was almost second nature to read each other’s movements. It was a times like these; when they could talk to and understand each other without having to speak a single word that she knew with all her heart and soul that they were meant to be together. Warmth spreads through her chest as Hayate lets out another raspy chuckle followed by a cough.

“Sorry, Hokage-sama just informed me yesterday and it’s the third stage, the finals.” Hayate pauses for a moment and stares at his hands, clasped in his lap. “I’m…nervous. But I’m excited too.” He glances at her from the corner of his eye and gives her a hesitant, shy smile.

Yugao smiles at him and tries to convey all the love that she feels for him into that one smile. She knew he still had trouble speaking about his emotions, not used to someone caring about what he felt. She gently cups his cheek in her other hand and turns his face until he is facing her. “I’m so proud of you Hayate. You have no idea how amazing you are,” she says, feeling her face heat up.

It was only right that she put herself out there after he had made the effort to tell her what he was feeling. Of course, the subsequent blush that Hayate is now sporting didn’t hurt either. She stares into his dark eyes a little while longer; loving everything about the man, even the permanent bags under his eyes. They only look away from each other when Hayate inevitably coughs.

Yugao loses track of how long they sit there in their tree, holding hands and watching the sun rise higher and higher into the sky, Hayate periodically coughing. When the sun is almost directly above them, Hayate speaks again.

“I’ve been thinking about something for a while.”

Yugao lets out a noncommittal hum. Hayate’s grip on her hand shifted and tightened. Nervous? He let out a series of coughs. Yes, he was definitely nervous about something. Hayate only coughed more than twice in a row when he was anxious or nervous about something. Yugao shifts her attention until it’s entirely focused on her lover.

“Well, it’s nothing concrete, but I’ve been thinking about, you know, maybe,” he coughs, “joining ANBU.” His voice loses momentum at the end, his whole body tensing up.

Yugao stares at him in shock for a moment before smiling. She was certain that Hayate was more than good enough to join ANBU, his kenjutsu was beyond superior, and it would be easier to spend time with him if he was in ANBU with her. She squeezes his hand and opens her mouth to encourage him to go through with it when something stops her. Something wasn’t right.

Yugao quickly pulls her mask back around to cover her face and silently jumps down to crouch on the branch directly below them, switching to her ANBU persona. A second later Hayate joins her on the branch: sword drawn, eyes narrowed and alert, his breathing slow and even.

He gently taps her knee once. _What is it?_

Yugao spreads her senses out, her chakra sensing among the best in the village, and tries to pinpoint what exactly it was that had alerted her that something was wrong. She makes a sharp movement with her hand. _Not sure_.

A few seconds later Hayate shifts closer to her and jerks his head in a half circle and taps his ear. _Listen around us_.

She nods as she realizes what it was that had alerted her. The wildlife: the bugs, the animals, and the birds were all in an uproar. As far as she could tell, every living thing within a half mile was upset about something, but what? What were they sensing that they couldn’t? She taps Hayate’s knee once. _What’s going on?_

He makes the same sharp movement she had just made. _Don’t know._

Yugao silently draws her sword and jerks her head down. Hayate shakes his head no. She glares at him; his stubbornness wasn’t exactly helping here. He gently taps her blade and glares right back. For a few seconds they’re locked in a glaring match. But then Hayate’s eyes soften and turn pleading. Her glare falls and she closes her eyes. She reluctantly nods.

A rough, calloused hand takes hers and places it over something warm. Yugao opens her eyes and sees that Hayate has placed her hand on his chest; right over his heart. He smiles at her, her favorite smile the cheater, squeezes her hand and quietly jumps down to the ground.

Yugao sighs, she should have known he wouldn't put her in danger while he was around; even if she was more than capable of taking care of herself. She quickly jumps over till she’s at the furthest protruding branch and looks down to watch the tokubetsu jounin.

Hayate was crouched low with his sword held out to his side, slightly in front of him. He takes a few steps forward and tilts his head to the side, listening.

Yugao nervously chews the inside of her cheek. In some ways, Hayate was the worst thing to happen to her. The few times that they had fought side-by-side she had always lost her ability to stay analytical and calm, too consumed by worry. Hayate made her human and being human could get you killed in a battle. Even though she knew Hayate was more that capable of handling himself, she couldn’t stop the butterflies from fluttering in her stomach and the knot from forming in her throat. She knew that if something were to happen to her beloved, she would never be the same.

So when Hayate suddenly dropped his sword and fell to his knees, an all-consuming panic gripped her and her stomach turned. She opens her mouth to scream for him, years of shinobi training completely disregarded, when her voice catches in her throat.

She can’t breathe. Where had all the air gone? She drops her sword, vaguely hearing the soft ‘thud’ it makes as it hits the leaf-strewn ground, and rips her mask off. She’s suffocating. She claws at her throat, desperate to get some oxygen into her lungs. What the hell was going on? She can’t feel her chakra. She can’t do anything. She frantically looks down to the ground to Hayate staring up at her, his hands also grabbing at his throat.

An almost primal urge washes over her: she has to get to Hayate. She needs to be with him, he was in pain and she needed to do something, _anything,_ to stop his pain.

Yugao stumbles off of the branch and falls to ground, landing ungracefully on her hands and knees with a loud ‘thump’, the loss of her chakra throwing her off balance. She tries to call out her lover’s name but there’s nothing in her lungs so nothing comes out. But Hayate knows, always knows, and is already dragging himself over to her. She desperately grasps at him when he comes within reach and a panic, a mind-numbing fear, starts to overwhelm her as her entire chest starts to burn and her vision starts to blur.

Hayate’s hands grab at her, gripping the front of her uniform, and drag her the rest of the short distance to himself. He falls sideways, pulling her with him, and lays on the ground, on his side, facing her. Somewhere in the back of her mind she registers the sound of crackling, like the air is being charged with electricity.

Yugao pulls at her uniform collar with one hand, and squeezes Hayate’s hand with the other. She stares into his eyes. Even with half her mind drowning in panic she can focus on the face less than a foot in front of her. She hates what she sees.

His usual tired eyes are wider than she thought possible, filled with fear and desperation. His mouth gasping open and close in a futile attempt to get air. Yugao doesn’t want to see this face.

She squeezes his hand impossibly tight and he squeeze back just as hard.

Black, a darker black than she has ever seen before, slowly creeps into her peripheral vision and she has the insane urge to laugh. Of all the ways she had imagined dying, she had never thought she would die so close to home, incapacitated by some mysterious force taking her chakra and all the oxygen from out in the open. But then again, it could be a lot worse. At least she has her love with her. And as much as she hates the thought that Hayate was going to die too, she can’t help the selfish thought that at least she would be leaving this world with him at her side. Her lip twitches upwards and she thinks something wet is trailing down her face.

All she can see is Hayate’s face. His eyes have calmed down some but she can still see a deep pain there. He awkwardly shuffles forward and presses his forehead against hers.

Yes, Yugao thinks, there are worse ways to die than this.

The black has almost completely occluded her vision, but she can still make out Hayate’s eyes. They’re glossy and a darker brown than she has ever seen before, but no tears fall from them.

The black has consumed everything but a pinpoint when the ground shakes and air is suddenly shoved down her raw throat. Her lungs burn in protest as oxygen is forced into them and even more tears pour from her eyes. She greedily gulps in the newly returned air as Hayate pulls her up into a kneeling position and into a fierce hug.

She rests her head over his shoulder and wraps her arms around him, clinging and trying to ground herself. She can hear the rough, wet coughs coming from Hayate in between his gasps and grips his hair with one hand while rubbing his back with the other. Her chakra runs through her system again and it’s like a balm to her soul.

They stay that way for what feels like hours and when Yugao finally gets her breathing under some semblance of control she clings tighter to Hayate and starts to cry, uncontrollably, like she never has before. The panic still grips her heart, nowhere near as strong as before, but still there nonetheless. She can’t seem to stop as ragged sobs escaped her sore throat. She wasn’t crying because she had almost died, she was shinobi, ANBU for crying out loud, she had accepted the fact that she had a high probability of being killed so young, but it was the full realization that _Hayate_ had almost died that made the tears flow. If he had died, she didn’t know what she would have done. Logically, she knows that she would have been dead too so it wouldn’t really matter, but she can’t stop the horror from building up at the thought that she would have never again felt his arms around her or see his eyes brighten up when he saw her.

Hayate’s hands move to her shoulders and push her back so that they were face to face. His eyes greedily roam over her, drinking in the sight of her as Yugao does the same to him. His hands suddenly go to her face, holding her cheeks almost too tightly.

“Yugao…” he whispers, his voice hoarse and broken.

Yugao heart clenches at the sound, even as she relished in his tight hold on her.

“God…” he says in the same tone and Yugao’s mind goes blank as Hayate’s lips are suddenly pressed against hers.

Wait. Hayate was kissing her? Hayate _never_ kissed her, at least not like this. Sure, they had kissed before, they had been dating for over a year now, but it usually took her a good ten minutes to get the stubborn man to cave in, and even then it was only just a quick peck. His fear of making her sick combined with his hesitance over even dating his former kenjutsu student made it difficult at best to get him to make any kind of physical contact with her. His physical interactions with others were practically nonexistent.

But now...now Hayate was kissing her, kissing her like he was starving. Like she was the air that they had recently been deprived of. And God it was good. Yugao never would have guessed that Hayate was so full of raw passion; for that was the only way to describe the way that he was kissing her.

His dry lips push insistently against hers and she eagerly replies. A hand slide from her cheek to behind her head and he grips her long purple hair in a fist, pushing her head closer. Yugao feels a warm, wet tongue trace her bottom lip and with a she shiver she opens her mouth for him. Hayate sits up a little straighter and pushes his tongue into her welcoming mouth, eagerly tracing every corner.

Yugao has no idea how she has lived so long without this and she is quickly becoming addicted to this more forceful side of her lover. She lets Hayate ravage her mouth for a bit before running her own tongue along his. Her lungs start to ache for oxygen but this time she welcomes the feeling, having no desire to stop. Their mouths fight for dominance and she shivers a little harder when Hayate refuses to back down and becomes even more forceful, gripping her hair tighter and pulling her impossibly closer. Yugao has never been so turned on in her life and she has never wanted Hayate more than she does now.

Her shudder seemed to have alerted Hayate to something because he's suddenly jerking away from her, nearly falling over backwards in his haste. The abrupt loss of his lips disorients her for a moment. She looks up to see what startled him but all she sees is Hayate, eyes wide with shock and shame. She frowns and was about to ask what's wrong but he starts talking before she can even open her mouth.

“Yugao! Oh, oh, I’m so so sorry! I don’t know –cough-- what came over me! We almost –cough-- died and then I go and –cough-- and do that! I’m so sorry! I wasn’t –cough-- thinking!” Hayate rambles frantically, his hands hovering in front of him as if he didn’t know what to do with them. His cough gets steadily worse as his distress increases.

“Hayate!” Yugao calmly yet forcefully says.

She needed to calm the man down before he made himself even more sick. The extended period without air they had just experienced certainly could not have been good for his health, and his frantic rambling was only exacerbating  his cough. Hayate immediately falls silent and stares at her with worried eyes. A year with Yugao had taught him to listen to that tone.

“I’m sorry,” he whispers one more time, his voice filled with so much self-loathing that it shocks Yugao for a moment.

“I don’t know why you’re sorry,” she says, her voice slightly hoarse, “I’ve been waiting a long time for something like that. Though I admit that I could have done without the whole ‘almost dying thing’.” She let out a soft chuckle as a faint blushed spreads across Hayate’s cheeks.

Hayate stiffens and looks around, suddenly on full alert. His actions bring the current situation back to the forefront of Yugao’s mind. Amazing how just a kiss, albeit a mind-blowing one, from Hayate can distract her from the fact that something had almost just killed them.

Hayate slowly stands up, still coughing, pulling Yugao up with him. They stand back to back next to their tree. Yugao once again stretches her senses out and searches for anything nearby. They both stiffened at the same time.

Blood.

The distinctive, coppery smell of blood assaults her senses. A second later she catches the scent of burning flesh.

“A fight?” Hayate whispers without turning around.

“Maybe. Someone or something is either dead or dying. Less than eight hundred meters at three o’clock?” she mumbles back.

“I’ll take lead. If it starts to get hard to breathe you get the hell out of there and go to the Hokage and inform him of the situation. No exceptions, is that understood?”

A pause, a cough, and then Yugao reluctantly mumbles affirmation.

They both know it’s a lie. Yugao would die right beside him without a second thought. She wouldn’t be able to abandon him. They both prayed that whatever had caused the air to disappear is long gone by now.

Hayate starts walking towards the smell of blood and Yugao follows from a pace behind. She observes the tense set in his shoulders, the agitated air around him, and knows that it’s not just because of whatever they are about to face. If they don’t die before they get back to Konoha she will have to corner Hayate to get him to tell her what’s wrong. She has a pretty good idea that he’s more tense about the kissing than the almost dying part.

Yugao internally sighs. If anything, the kiss had been a heat of the moment thing but now he would most likely be even more reserved than before. If that was the case then she will just have to _force_ him to see that she wasn’t afraid to be close to him. Already she was itching to kiss him again, as inappropriate as it would be in the current situation. Who knew almost dying would have helped to advance their relationship?

Hayate stops and holds his hand up. _Wait_.

Yugao stops and berates herself. What the hell was wrong with her? She is going into a potentially lethal situation and yet here she was, fretting over her relationship like some love-struck twelve year old civilian. How shameful. She takes a deep breath and slips her ANBU mask and persona into place.

Hayate goes over to a nearby tree and runs his hand over the bark. Yugao narrows her eyes as she sees what had given him pause. The tree looked like someone had repeatedly slashed at it with a sword. The sword slashes, too wide to be from a standard sword, went all the way up to the very top of the tree. She looks around and sees that all of the surrounding trees have similar marks on them; one of the smaller trees having been cut all the way in half. Had a battle taken place here?

Yugao taps the back of Hayate’s hand twice to show she’s seen everything and they continued on. After about one hundred meters Hayate slows his pace down. The trees around them now have more than slash marks on them. The great trees that Konoha was so well known for were partially uprooted and leaning against each other; as if some great force had passed by and knocked them over. They were all leaning away from the direction that they were heading in and as they continued to walk Yugao had a sinking feeling in the pit of her stomach that things were about to drastically change, for better or worse.

Another hundred meters in and the proud trees had bent completely to the will of the unknown force and were now lying flat on the ground. Yugao and Hayate had to leap onto the trunks and jump from fallen tree to fallen tree in order to continue forward. The smell of blood and burnt flesh was now overwhelmingly strong and Yugao was thankful that her ANBU mask was blocking at least some of the stench.

Hayate suddenly stops on one of the larger fallen trees and crouches down, drawing his sword out. Yugao lands directly behind him and lays her body out flat so that if anyone were to look directly at Hayate they would’nt be able to see her. She sneaks her hand out to touch Hayate’s foot.

She taps once. _What is it?_

Hayate doesn’t move for a moment but then reaches over and, on the hand that’s resting against his foot, draws an ‘X’. _Stay here._ He jumps forward before Yugao can protest.

She quickly sits up into a crouch, ready to attack at a seconds notice. It was her job to watch her partner’s back and she would be damned if she let something hurt him again. Yugao scans the surrounding area, searching for the best possible escape routes and memorizing the terrain so she won’t get caught by surprise if they have to fight. There was nothing worse than a shinobi tripping over a rock or a root in the middle of a life-and-death fight.

“Yugao! Come here!” Hayate shouts, his voice strained.

Yugao quickly jumps towards where Hayate’s voice had come from, drawing her katana in mid-air. There’s a clearing a few meters ahead of her and her eyes widen in shock behind her mask.

Every single tree has been completely decimated, the only sign that there had even been trees there before were periodic scorch marks on the ground. In the epicenter of the now-barren area there is a crater at least fifteen meters in diameter. Yugao kneels down to feel the ground. It’s still hot from whatever had burned the trees.

“Hayate?” she calls out, not seeing him anywhere in the clearing.

“Down here!”

She runs over to the edge of crater and look into it to find Hayate crouching down in the middle of the hole, leaning over something, his sword laying on the ground next to him. Yugao hesitates a moment when she realizes the smell of blood and burnt flesh is coming from whatever Hayate is hovering over. A flash of irrational fear shoots through Yugao at the thought of Hayate being so close to something that smelled so strongly of death.

What the _hell_ was wrong with her? The way she was acting was more than likely going to get them both killed because she wasn’t concentrating. Even in the past when they worked together, it was never this bad.

Yugao jumps down into the crater and runs over to Hayate, doing all she can to suppress the urge to gag at the overwhelming stench. When she’s close enough to see what he’s leaning over, she can’t hold back her gasp.

“Is he alive?” she whispers.

Yugao has seen many dead and dying bodies in her young life, being in ANBU, she has been the cause of many of those bodies. She has seen the cruelty with which some missing-nin dealt with their prey. She has seen bodies mutilated, burned, and scattered. She could cut off a target’s head and have no qualms about it if it meant protecting Konoha. But this, _this_ was on a whole new level for her. The man lying in front of her, at least she thinks it’s male, looked like he could be the embodiment of the phrase ‘through hell and back’.

The most prominent thing about the man was that his skin was barely there. It looked like someone had taken a knife and meticulously sliced the first few layers of his skin off; all that remained was a pink and red splotchy, mockery of skin. It looked to be the work of some new jutsu that she had never seen before or a highly skilled medic-nin, probably on par with the Sannin Tsunade-hime in terms of skill. Surprisingly though, the man’s clothes, or what was left of them, were still on him. She doesn’t see any hitai-ate on him to identify where he was from, if he even was a shinobi. It was impossible to tell what his torn clothing could have originally been. Though why anyone would attack a civilian so viciously was beyond her.

Looking closer Yugao notices that there were also burns sporadically scattered along his body, barely visible among the raw skin. In fact, it looked like his whole body had been electrocuted, in some places the skin was even smoking, no doubt the main cause of the awful smell. Lacerations and stab wounds also littered the man’s body. The largest being a deep stab wound in the center of his chest. It looked like it went clean through him.

When Hayate doesn’t respond, Yugao jerks her head up. He was staring at the body before him with serious eyes and a clenched jaw. Slowly, he reaches out and places his hand over the man’s neck, searching for a pulse. Yugao can’t blame him for the grimace he makes when he touches the raw skin on the man’s throat. His hand flinches back almost as soon as it touches the man.

“He’s alive!” Hayate says in disbelief.

Yugao stares at Hayate for a moment. There was no possible way that the man was alive. The hole in his chest was definitely a fatal wound, and if by some miracle he had survived that, the extent and degree of the burns covering his body would have killed him. But Hayate wouldn’t lie; he had never lied to her before and he certainly wouldn’t lie about something like this.

She looks down at the not-dead man’s face again. Now that she’s over the initial shock of seeing his injuries, she sees it. There is just the slightest movement beneath his eyelids, it was barely there but it was enough.

Yugao’s ANBU training finally kicks in full-throttle. Thank God her Captain wasn’t here or else he would have kicked her ass six ways to Sunday for being so unprofessional. “Hayate. Run back to the village and grab the first med-nin you see and then run back this way. I’ll carry the man and run in a straight line towards the village until I see you and the med-nin. If we don’t see you before we reach the village we will wait outside the gates, we will not bring an unknown into the village. We’ll have the med-nin see if they can stabilize him. If he’s a lost cause then at least we will have tried. If we can stabilize him then we’ll bring him to the hospital and into the secure ward until we learn more about him. He could be a potential enemy nin; however we cannot just leave him to die. If he is an enemy nin he could also have valuable information and as Konoha shinobi we cannot allow this opportunity to pass.”

“Let me-”.

“No, I was training earlier today and am running low on chakra. I won’t be able to make the run back to Konoha as quickly as you will.” Yugao pauses for a moment. If it was anyone else she would just pull rank on them but she could never do that, not to her lover.

Hayate looks at her with a small smile; her favorite smile again. “Don’t you dare be late Yugao,” he says and is gone in a whoosh of air.

Yugao looks down at the mutilated body with a grimace. She is not looking forward to carrying the man however far it will take to meet back up with Hayate. She looks over the body again and tries to figure out what the least painful way for the man to be picked up is. In all honesty it was going to hurt like hell no matter which way she picked him up. If he was even conscious enough to feel the pain, or if he even had enough nerve endings left to feel pain.

Yugao carefully slides one arm under the man’s shoulders and the other under his knees. It is only as she is lifting the man up that she realized how light he is, realizes how small the man is. Without wasting another second she sets off as fast as she dares, trying not to jostle the man too badly, towards the village.

As Yugao jumps out of the crater, runs pass the decimated trees, pass the uprooted trees and towards the slashed trees she can’t help but ponder over what exactly had caused that much destruction. It looked like some kind of explosion had gone off, the man in her arms being the epicenter. Had he been attacked? Or had he been the one attacking and just lost after killing his enemies? As far as Yugao knew, to cause that much damage it would take at least three ANBU in their top form. Her eyes dart to the man she’s carrying. Whoever this man was, he certainly had powerful enemies.

It’s not even five minutes later that she feels two chakra signatures approaching; one which she knows as well as her own. How had Hayate managed to run all the way to Konoha, find a med-nin, and run back? Yugao slows down until she comes to stop in a small clearing. She is gently laying the man down on the grass when Hayate bursts through the trees, a blonde man behind him.

“Inoichi-sama!” Yugao says, standing at attention and bowing slightly. She glances at Hayate out of the corner of her eye.

He coughs. “He was patrolling outside of the gates and a Yamanaka is as good as any med-nin,” Hayate says with a careless shrug that was belied by the tightness around his eyes as he glances Yugao over.

“Is this the man Hayate-kun was telling me about?” Inoichi says, kneeling down beside the burned body without hesitation.

Yugao kneels down opposite of him and bows her head. “We found him alone approximately four hundred meters westward in a field after Hayate-san and I went in search of the cause of an unknown jutsu that we got caught it. The surroundings were completely destroyed showing signs of what looked to be an A class or higher battle. When we got there the ground was still warm from a jutsu and his body was still smoking which leads me to believe that the battle had just ended. He was unconscious when we arrived and has not woken up since. Estimated time since discovery: eight minutes.”

Inoichi absent-mindedly nods and hovers his hands over the man’s body. He rests one hand over the man’s forehead but then pulls it away with a frown. His hands start to glow green and he runs them over the man’s chest and stomach but stops after a few seconds, his frown deepening. He sits back on his heels and bites his lip, staring hard at the man’s face.

“Inoichi-sama?” Hayate asks, coming over to stand behind Yugao. He rests a hand on her shoulder.

The head of the Yamanaka clan doesn’t say anything, just continues to stare at the man with a frown. Yugao doesn’t know what’s going on but she knows that if the man doesn't get treatment soon he really will die. So why in the world was Inoichi-sama just sitting there doing nothing?

“From my preliminary observations I gathered that around eighty percent of his body has sustained second or third degree burns. There are over a dozen visible lacerations, most likely kunai made. There is a large, fist-sized hole to his anterior right chest that goes to his posterior chest; an injury which was no doubt the cause of his punctured right lung. Multiple abrasions cover his trunk and extremities with no discernible pattern. He is covered in an abnormal amount of blood, most of which I believe is not his. Dried blood indicates that he was wounded or inflicted wounds somewhere between two and three hours ago, the fresh blood indicate less than fifteen minutes. There’s blood in his middle ear, indicating a basilar skull fracture. It’s impossible to tell how exactly many bones have been broken or muscles pulled but I can confidently say that the right half of his rib cage is shattered and his upper lumbar spine appears to be broken, possibly his thoracic spine as well,” Inoichi says quietly and quickly, not looking up as he speaks. “Physically this man should be dead.” His voice gives no indication of what he is thinking.  

“But he still has a pulse! He’s still alive! Why aren’t- forgive me Inoichi-sama, but why aren’t you healing him?” Hayate says.

If Inoichi heard Hayate he doesn’t give any sign. “Physically this man should be dead _three times over_ ,” Inoichi says. “It is literally impossible for someone to be alive right now. It is simply not possible for the human body to withstand this kind of damage and still be breathing afterwards.”

Yugao’s eyes widen as the implications of his words hit her. She involuntarily takes a step back. So this man…wasn’t really a man? What was he? Hayate’s grip on her shoulder tightens and he voices her question.

Again, Inoichi doesn’t respond right away. “I’m…not sure. Either something is blocking me from reaching him mentally or,” another pause, “there’s nothing up there for me to reach.”

Hayate coughs. “So what do we do?”

Inoichi makes a hand sign and mutters a jutsu under his breath, too low for Yugao or Hayate to hear. He then mimics Yugao’s earlier actions and picks the man’s frail form up, holding him carefully in his arms.

“We take him to Konoha and report what’s happened to Hokage-sama. I’ve placed a sleeping jutsu on him in the event that he should wake up before we can properly situate him in the village. Let’s go.” Inoichi says, his tone offering no chance for questions.

Yugao and Hayate follow a pace behind the Torture and Interrogation Specialist. In Yugao’s opinion, placing a sleeping jutsu on the man was a little extreme, but then again, surviving a hole in the chest was a bit extreme too. She glances over at Hayate who’s branch-hopping alongside her. He looks over at her and gave her a warm smile; and suddenly, everything was okay. Because even though they both felt it, felt that something big was coming, that things were about to change, they still had each other. As long as she could look over and see Hayate smile at her, she could take anything that the world threw at her.    


	3. Out of the Blue

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you all so much for all the feedback! I’ve been pretty busy lately so I haven’t been able to work on this as much as I would have liked, but I should have some more free time coming up so look forward to more updates!  
> Also, please excuse any grammatical mistakes  
> Enjoy!

Tsunade felt like throwing someone out a window. While it might be frowned upon, it would definitely make her feel better. Of course, a nice bottle of sake would probably do just as well. But unfortunately, she was the Hokage now and she wasn’t allowed to drink herself unconscious whenever she wanted to anymore. 

Tsunade sighs and drops her head against her desk with a bang. Being the Hokage sucked. And to make matters worse, since she had become Hokage, Shizune had gone from disapproving of her sake-drinking habits to becoming the Sake Police. It was embarrassing that a Sannin like herself couldn’t even manage to hide a bottle of sake from her assistant. 

She lifts her head off her desk and growls when a few of the never-ending papers stick to her forehead. She is sorely tempted to crumple them up and throw them away, but with her luck, they were probably submissions from the civilian shop-keepers asking for a ridiculous amount of money for repairs for the damages they had sustained from the impromptu attack from Oto and Suna a month ago.

Thinking about that also made her want to throw someone out a window. Or drink an unhealthy amount of sake.

Which brought her back to the initial reason of why she wanted to throw someone out a window; or more specifically, a few people. Those few people being some of the Council. She had always known her sensei hadn’t been particularly fond of the village’s Council, but she hadn’t known that they were this bad. It seemed like they were purposely trying to undermine her authority and make everything much harder than it had to be. 

Of course, having their precious Uchiha defect from the village hadn’t helped their attitudes. 

Tsunade had never really known the famed Last Uchiha. Taking up the mantle of Godaime Hokage and trying to clean up the mess Orochimaru had left had taken all of her attention and resources so she had had no choice but to delegate the task of retrieving the Uchiha to Shikaku’s kid and his team. When the dust had settled, the Uchiha had gone his own way. And though she had never met the boy, she was already pretty biased against him; in the extreme. 

Sure the boy had defected from the village, which she was the leader of. That was a big deal in itself as it could be taken as a personal slight to herself. But it wasn’t for that reason that she didn’t like the genin she had never met. 

It was because he had hurt  _ him.  _

He had hurt one of her few precious people. The one who had brought the light slamming back into her life. She had personally seen the damage the Uchiha had done to her precious brat. She had seen how Naruto had almost died to bring his teammate back. 

If she ever came across the Uchiha, she would rip him a new one. 

A knock sounds on her door and she almost cries out in joy at the welcome distraction. With a yelled ‘Come in’ Tsunade attempts to reign in some of the chaos that has taken over her desk. 

An ANBU, whose name she honestly can’t remember right now, walks in. “Hokage-sama,” he says with a bow. He coughs. 

Tsunade waves her hand through the air in a dismissive manner. After the Council and paperwork, the bowing was the next thing on her list of Things to Destroy. While people had been bowing to her ever since she was coined one of the Legendary Sannin, she had been traveling for years from place to place with a young face and civilian clothes and had become used to people not recognizing her. The recurrence of the constant bowing got old after the first week.

“What?” she snaps. When the ANBU starts to cough again she immediately feels guilty. It wasn’t his fault that she was so stressed out. “My apologizes,” she says, pressing the heels of her hands against her eyes. “I’m just a little tired. Please, continue.” 

“Inoichi-sama says that he’s ready when you are, Hokage-sama,” the ANBU says.

She nods, her mood instantly improving. “That’s a nasty cough you have. Schedule an appointment with my assistant Shizune and I’ll take a proper look at you. Dismissed.”

With a nod and a bow, the ANBU leaves.

Despite the bowing, Tsunade finds herself smiling. If there was one thing she enjoyed it was a challenge; and the patient that she was about to go see was the very definition of challenge. After she had somewhat stabilized the village after her ex-teammate’s attack, she had gone through the more private and classified files the village had, hoping to find something that would take her mind off of her sensei’s death. And she had hit the jackpot. 

Patient number U15399 was a gold mine for her med-nin side. Brought in about three months ago, just before the Chunin Exams had begun, the preliminary and follow up test results within the file had been utterly incomprehensible. She had almost thrown the file out, assuming it was a filing error, but at the last moment she had noticed Inoichi Yamanaka’s signature scribbled on the bottom.

When she had performed her own personal exam her results hadn’t been much better. A lot of her techniques just didn’t work on the man. Short of slicing the man up, there wasn’t much she could do. The only thing she really knew about the man, medically, was that he was in pristine health. Which should have been impossible considering his history. If the initial damage report was to be believed, the man should have been at least a hundred feet under.

She and Shizune had spent countless hours hypothesizing about the man’s seeming miraculous recovery. That the man had some kind of rapid healing bloodline was the most probable conclusion. 

When U15399’s body made a full recovery a few weeks after he was found, ANBU had placed him in one of the more permanent Torture and Interrogation cells. However, it was quickly decided that it would be for the best that when the patient woke up, he woke up in a comfortable hospital room. 

And if he decided to stay in Konoha and spread this unique bloodline then that was fine too.

Tsunade leaves her office behind with good riddance and makes her way through the village towards the hospital. Inoichi had been the initial attending for U15399 and had been adamant about being the patient’s sole caretaker, besides herself of course. Apparently, Inoichi had a slight fascination with the man because, according to him, it was the first mind he had encountered which he couldn’t break into. And if Inoichi Yamanaka couldn’t get into someone’s mind, then no one could.

Tsunade just hoped the man wasn’t from another shinobi village or else they would have a serious problem. If it wasn’t a blood line and was instead some sort of new village technique and there were enemy nin out there that were able to close off their minds as completely as U15399 was, then there was no telling what trouble that would spell for Konoha. 

Yesterday, one of her jutsus on the man had registered that he had woken up for a moment. It couldn’t have been more than a second; when she had arrived minutes later he had been unconscious again, just as unresponsive as ever. So today, Tsunade was going to take a risk and try and wake the man up. Normally she wouldn’t dare do something so risky, especially after the patient had almost died, but it was  _ because  _ he had almost died and was now fine that she was going to attempt it. Healing so quickly wasn’t exactly normal so she figured the man could take it. If she succeeded then Inoichi was to try to break into his mind again. Hopefully it would be easier if he was conscious. 

Tsunade knew that they should probably wait, not only could they accidentally fry the man’s brain, but it wasn’t exactly polite to invade someone’s mind the second they woke up. It kind of negated the whole ‘we are friendly enough to have offered you a comfortable bed to rest in while you recovered’ thing. But Tsunade was just too damn eager and she knows that Inoichi was excited for today as well. They would deal with the consequences later.

And there was something else unique about UNKNOWN15399; something more interesting than him being able to heal at inhumane rates. More interesting than him appearing from nowhere, in the midst of a S level fight. 

Patient U15399 had no chakra.

None.

Not even the barest of sparks that civilians had.

Never, in her entire career as a med-nin or in all of her travels, had she come across someone with no chakra. Even when ninjas were exiled and had their chakra sealed, if you were skilled enough you would be able to pick up on the barest impressions of chakra.

The man she was going to go see was very interesting indeed. 

Tsunade walks through the white winding corridors of Konoha’s only hospital to U15399’s room. Inoichi is already waiting for her, leaning against the door with his eyes closed. 

He opens his eyes and gives a small, respectful nod, but doesn’t bow. “Hokage-sama.”

Together, they walk into the small one-man room that holds the object that’s piqued both of their interests.

Tsunade looks down at the man on the bed. Dwarfed by the bulky white sheets, he appears painfully young, perhaps in his early twenties at most. His high cheekbones, arched eyebrows and thin, straight nose give him an almost feline appearance. His tanned, unmarred skin complements his long red hair nicely. Tsunade purposely doesn't think about his hair. There are a million other things more interesting about the man than the shade of his hair. Red hair meant nothing.

Inoichi pulls a chair up by the man’s head and sits down. “I’m going to try and break through one more time before you wake him, just in case,” he says, gently placing both hands on the man’s temples and closing his eyes. A second later he reopens them with a sigh of disappointment, but there’s a small smile tugging at the corner of his lips. 

“Still nothing. It’s incredible really. Usually when there’s something blocking me it’s a jutsu or a seal of some kind that manifests a physical barrier in the mind or erases parts altogether. Even if someone has had their mind entirely wiped clean there’s still emptiness there, like a blank white space. But this guy,” Inoichi waves vaguely in front of him, “this guy, it’s like there’s nothing there. I might as well be trying to read a chair’s mind. Fascinating really.” 

“Yes, well, as fascinating as all that is, it’s a problem. The man is either a shinobi, has some powerful shinobi enemies or is some combination of the two. If he is an enemy shinobi then this new technique, or whatever it is that they’ve managed to develop that allows their nin to hide their minds so efficiently, is a major threat. Who knows what of danger this man potentially poses,” Tsunade says.

“Yes, yes. Then again, it might just be an isolated incident related only to this particular man. A blood line or forbidden jutsu maybe?” Inoichi asks, raising an eyebrow. 

“Hm, two blood lines? Maybe, we won’t know until he wakes up,” Tsunade says walking around to take Inoichi’s place by U15399’s head.

Waking a person from an unconscious state was relatively easy. Depending on how deep into unconsciousness the person was, different methods were used. The best solution, in Tsunade’s opinion, was a simple chakra reinforced whack to the back of the head. However, seeing as that was sometimes detrimental to the patient’s physical well-being, Tsunade usually had to employ more gentle methods. 

The most  _ effective _ method was for the med-nin to take a small amount of their own chakra and push it into the patient without any intent; otherwise known as blank chakra. Simple, yet potentially dangerous. If the chakra that was pushed into the patient wasn’t completely blank and without motive then a severe backlash would occur, drastically draining both the medic and the patient of their chakra. It required the strictest concentration. In addition, they also had to factor in how much blank chakra they were pushing in. If the patient had small chakra reserves and they pushed too much in they could accidentally fry the patient’s chakra coils.  

Which was usually why smelling salts were used. Simple, yet effective. However, if a person was too far from consciousness, usually in a coma-like state, then it was usually better to wait it out than to risk trying to wake the person up. However, if you had an exceptionally skilled med-nin then the blank chakra method could be used with relative ease; being able to wake a person who had been in a coma for years. 

Today, there just so happened to be the best medic ninja in the entire Elemental Countries in the room. 

With a smirk, Tsunade places glowing green hands on each side of the man’s face and sends a short but powerful blast of blank chakra through the man’s chakra coils. Coils which she knew were there even if there was no chakra flowing through them. And judging by their development, the missing chakra was enormous. She doesn’t think about red hair and large chakra reserves, instead absent-mindedly noting that this is the first time she’s actually made physical contact with the man.  

Nothing happens.

Tsunade gives an undignified huff and sends another, more powerful, burst of chakra through the man. He should have woken up screaming bloody murder.

Nothing.

“Tsunade-sama?” Inoichi hesitantly asks.

“Maybe it’s not working because he has no chakra to begin with? Usually when this method is used, the chakra that is pushed into the patient acts as a catalysts and jumpstarts the patient's entire chakra system. Since there’s no chakra in his body, there’s nothing to jumpstart. Idiot! I should have thought of that earlier!” Tsunade scowls, mentally berating herself. In hindsight, it was pretty obvious that it wouldn’t have worked. She had let her eagerness get in the way and cloud her judgment.

“So then we’ll just have to wait for him to wake up on his own then, huh? I can continue trying to break in, but I doubt it will do any good. It’s like I don’t even have anything to break into.” Inoichi sighs, his disappointment written clearly on his face. 

Tsunade doesn’t blame him. She’s been looking forward to this all week and to have nothing happen is a major let down. She stands and makes her way towards the door, Inoichi right behind her, when she suddenly feels like a bucket of cold water is being dumped on her. She tenses and spins around, chakra already gathered in her clenched fists.

“Show yourself!” she yells at the room. 

No ANBU come at her sudden spike in chakra. Patient U15399 was confidential and only a handful of people knew of him; her ANBU guard had been discretely ordered this morning to take a few hours off. 

“Tsunade-sama!” Inoichi exclaims, jumping backwards and holding his hands up in the air to show his innocence. When he realizes she isn’t glaring at him he too turns around and searches the room. “Hokage-sama?” he whispers warily, slipping into a more formal address.

“We’re being watched,” Tsunade grits out. She doesn’t know by who or from where but she trusts her instincts; she wasn’t a Sannin because of her looks. 

Tsunade can feel the malice, the hate in the air, almost as if it were a tangible thing. And though she would never admit it, it’s making her nervous. She whips her head to the right when she hears indistinctive murmurings. 

“I can hear you! I order you to show yourself this instant or else I will use force!” Tsunade yells into the air again. The murmurings come from the left and she jerks her head that way but there’s still nothing.

“Hokage-sama, I don’t sense or hear anything. Should I call for backup?” Inoichi says, kind smile gone, replaced by his no-nonsense jounin persona.

No. She doesn’t know why, but she doesn’t want to call for her ANBU guards. Why? She should. It was just common sense. She was the Hokage and she needed protection against enemies even if she was powerful; all it took was one mistake to get yourself killed. So why wasn’t she signaling for her ANBU? She opens her mouth but nothing comes out, something screaming inside of her to  _ not call for backup. _

The voice is getting either louder or closer and she can’t tell if it’s male or a female. She can’t even really tell what direction it’s coming from. She glances at the man on the bed. Was he doing this? Was the voice a friend of his? Or were they after him?

“This is your last warning! Show yourself or face the consequences!”

Tsunade increases the chakra flow to her fists and abruptly realizes there’s more than one voice. There’s half a dozen? A dozen? How did so many intruders manage to get into the village? She tries to make out the words they’re saying to each other, or are they talking to her? 

**_It’s her._ **

Tsunade freezes. She heard one of the voices clearly that time, it was still faint but she had clearly heard the words. It had sounded like an older male. Was he talking about her, targeting her? Tsunade glances at Inoichi, who is standing protectively in front of her, but he gives no indication that he’s heard or was hearing anything. It had to be some kind of genjutsu then that was making only her hear the voices. 

She says a silent ‘Kai!’ and disrupts her chakra flow.

**_Yeah, she was on that rock._ ** One of the voices, a younger male this time, says, voice just as faint.

**_Godaime Hokage. Precious._** A female this time.

**_Finally, why the hell did it take so long?_** A grouchy male’s voice.

**_Idiots!_** A new voice yells, louder and more clear than all the others. **_Be quiet and keep healing!_**

The constant murmuring that Tsunade has been hearing ceases but she only tenses more. Whoever these people were they knew who she was. She opens her mouth to question the hidden enemies again.

**_Hold your tongue woman!_ ** The clear voice says again. 

“Excuse me?” she yells out in anger.

Inoichi turns around and gives her a questioning look. Belatedly, Tsunade realizes she probably looks like a fool talking to no one.   

**_Are all you humans this dense? I said hold your tongue woman! Tell the Yamanaka to leave._ **

Tsunade’s eye twitches at the command. Who the hell did this person think they were, telling her what to do. She opens her mouth again to give him a piece of her mind, appearances be damned, when a low threatening growl reverberates through her mind. 

Tsunade’s jaw snaps shut, her instincts telling her to err on the side of caution. She’s not some green-faced genin, she is more than capable of gauging a situation and acting accordingly. And that growl wasn’t something born from a human so Tsunade complies with the creature’s wishes. 

“Forgive me Inoichi-san. I must be more tired than I thought I was if I’m starting to imagine things. Why don’t you head on home? I’m going to stay with the patient a little longer to run a few more tests just in case I overlooked something.”

Inoichi frowns at her but it isn’t his place to question a not-so-subtle order from his Hokage. With a wary bow and another cursory sweep of the room with his eyes, he backs out of the room and leaves.

For a moment nothing happens. 

“Well, what do you want with me? I’m alone now, so stop hiding like a coward and show yourself.”

Tsunade’s proud that her voice holds no hint of her trepidation. She isn’t sure what happened to the other voices but if they chose to attack her, she knows she isn’t eager to fight with any of them. She narrows her eyes at the unconscious man lying on the bed, oblivious to the world. She just knows that this was all connected to him; coincidences aren’t that common in the shinobi world. She can’t wait for the man to wake up so she can beat the crap out of him for causing her so much trouble.

**_There’s no need to speak aloud Godaime. Merely think your words and I will hear them._ ** The voice says.

Tsunade hesitates at the voice confirming that he knows who she is; a month of being the Hokage wasn’t long enough for her face to be well known. However, she can’t just stand here without getting any answers. So, feeling incredibly foolish, she thinks:  _ How are you communicating with me? _

**_When you pushed your chakra into the kid I pushed some of my own into you, establishing a link so I could contact you. We have been waiting a while for you._ **

_Are you the unconscious man?_ _Who is we? There were others earlier, where did they go?_

There isn’t an answer right away and Tsunade has to stretch her patience well past its limits in order not to punch something to release all of her pent up nervousness and confusion. She hates not knowing what’s going on. She really needed that sake about five minutes ago. 

**_Neither I nor my kin are the man you see. We are merely…a part of him. No more, no less. Do not ask our names for I will not tell you now nor any other time. We would not have made you aware of our presence if the kid had been awake. But his soul is shattered right now and it’s taking everything we have just to keep him alive. As humiliating as this is, we need to ask for your assistance for there is only so much even we can do._ **

Tsunade takes a moment to process the rush of information. If the voice was to be believed, then the man lying in the room with her, the man who looked to be in perfect health, was almost dying. And not only that but he supposedly had voices, possibly separate beings, inside of him. Tsunade massages her temples. First things first: the welfare of her patient. 

_ What’s wrong with him? My tests show that there is no internal or external damage. His body, or his physical being at least, is perfectly fine. We haven’t been able to assess his mental state as even our best can’t get a read on him.  _

Tsunade walks back over to the unconscious man and sits down next to him. She studies him again, her curiosity drowning out any other emotion. What had she missed?

**_He recently went through an…ordeal. While we managed to heal his body and mind, his soul has been strained. It was almost ripped from his body and it’s just barely holding onto his physical being. If his soul loses what little grip it still has, he will become nothing more than a shell. As powerful as we are we cannot do much in the matters of human souls. But another human can._ **

Tsunade turns his words over in her mind for a moment. It certainly was a lot of information to take in, assuming the voice is telling the truth. She knows a little about souls, the result of Jiraiya studying their ex-teammate’s leftover research, and she’s pretty confident that she would be able to help heal a strained soul. Though what the hell had the man been doing to mess with his soul? 

Orochimaru’s face flashes through her mind and she grits her teeth. He was the only person in the Elemental Countries that dabbled in such forbidden jutsu with any modicum of success. Had this man been an unfortunate byproduct of one of his experiments? 

_ You said his mind was healed. Why can’t we access it then? _

**_We have not let you._ ** Is the simple reply.

Tsunade grunts in acknowledgment. From what she can conclude so far, whoever these people are, though she doubts they are people, they were living  _ inside _ the young man. Parasitically or symbiotically? At least now she knows the reason behind the man’s fast healing. And it’s almost a relief that the redhead with large chakra reserves wasn’t directly responsible for his fast healing. The less coincidences the better. The only question was: what could heal a person like that? 

Tsunade only knows of one thing that can heal a person and that lives inside of a human. She looks down at the man. While it was possible that the man was a container for a bijuu, it couldn’t be true. There was more than one voice/being inside of the man. Tsunade had never heard of more than one tailed-beast being sealed within a person before. She had certainly never heard of a demon being able to communicate with a person that wasn’t its container. 

So the man wasn’t a jinchuuriki. The fact that all nine of the bijuu were currently sealed within known humans helped support that fact. So it had to be some other kind of self-aware power source inside the man. But she hadn’t seen any seal markings when she had examined the man. Then again, according to Jiraiya, most seals on humans didn’t show up until their chakra passed through it. Then again, this man didn’t have any chakra right now so if he had a seal it wouldn’t have shown up anyway. 

Tsunade rubs her temples again and sighs. She isn’t used to thinking this much this early in the day. 

_ How can I help? _

Healing the man had been her intention all along, she reasons. She had taken an oath when she first became a med-nin, and though she had been neglecting it the past few years, her return to Konoha was supposed to mark a new beginning for her. Either way, she would have to keep a closer watch on the man, seeing as she now knows that there are multiple beings sealed within the man.

**_Place your hands on the kid’s head like you did before and we will let you in. Then you can begin healing him._ **

Tsunade places her hands on the man’s head and can’t help but be a little wary; this was Ibiki and Inoichi’s field of expertise, not hers. She also isn’t too keen on meeting the multiple powerful beings inside the man. And Tsunade just knows they are powerful, you can’t just hide a person’s mind from the Head of the Yamanaka Clan on a whim.

Tsunade sits there for a second and starts to feel foolish when nothing happens. She chews her bottom lip and squeezes her eyes shut, trying to imagine herself inside of the man’s mind. She mentally curses herself for not paying more attention to Inoichi whenever he went on one of his long boring rants about the intricacies of the human mind. 

Her patience at its end, Tsunade opens her eyes to yell at the voice when she realizes she isn’t sitting in the hospital room anymore. She slowly stands up from where she’s sitting on the cold floor (wasn’t she just on a chair?) and looks around. 

Now, Tsunade has never been in someone’s mind before, so she can’t really tell if this is the norm or not. However, she can tell you that if someone were to go looking inside of  _ her  _ head it would be nowhere near as…clean as this man’s is.

From what she can tell, it looks like she’s standing in the middle of a giant lake. As far as she can see there is nothing but clear water. She looks down at her feet, and though she can see that the water comes up to her shins, she doesn’t feel wet. She looks up and frowns. Instead of seeing an open sky like she expected, about a hundred meters above her is a pure white ceiling. She squints to get a better look. Are those pipes up there?

Tsunade can only conclude that she is in the world’s biggest and cleanest sewer. A logical conclusion. 

**“Walk straight ahead until you come to the gate.”** The voice says, only this time it isn’t echoing in her head. The voice, easily twice as loud and deep as before, reverberates through the sewer.

Tsunade looks straight ahead and sees only water. Her eye twitches. “I don’t see a gate. How far away is it?”

An irritated growl echoes around her.  **“Not far. Just walk in a straight line. As high a pedestal as the humans have placed you on I had assumed that you would able to follow such simple directions. Do you need me to draw you a map, Hokage?”**

Tsunade’s other eye twitches. Biting her tongue to keep from lashing out at the irritating voice and conveniently forgetting her earlier reservations, Tsunade stomps forward, the water splashing around her. She can’t wait to give that conceited  _ thing  _ a good beating. Teach it a few things about respecting their elders, powerful non-human be damned.

So engrossed in trying not to make a snarky remark, Tsunade doesn’t notice the gate sticking out of the water until she almost runs into it. She takes a step back in surprise.

Saying the gate was giant was an understatement. Colossal was a more fitting term. She should have been able to see it from miles and miles away. And she was certain that she hadn’t been walking for that long, a few minutes at most. How she hadn’t seen the gate sooner was baffling.

The gate looks like it’s made out of some kind of black metal. The bars, set about a meter apart and thicker than a person, stick up out of the water and extend all the way up to the ceiling. She looks to both sides but can’t make out were the gate ends, it just seems to continue on indefinitely. She’s not even sure she would call it a gate, a gate implied it could be opened and she doesn't see any indications of an entryway. 

One thing she knows for certain is that whatever is on the other side of the gate has to be huge. She can easily slip through the bars, which kind of made the whole gate thing moot. She can only see a few feet behind the bars, any further and there is only darkness. 

Tsunade takes a closer look at the bars and notices that they aren’t smooth like she had first thought they were. She gently runs a finger along one of the bars and feels slight indentations. Tsunade leans closer and squints to get a better look. She abruptly realizes the indentations are engravings and pulls her hand back as if she’s been shocked.

... _ the hell? _

From what little fuinjutsu she knows, mostly from Jiraiya and Minato, she can tell that the engravings on the bar are some kind of seal. An advanced seal; far more complex than anything she’s ever seen before. She quickly goes to the next bar over and sees more engravings. In a daze, she goes to the next bar.

More engravings.

As far as she can see, each and every bar has seals engraved into them. She can’t make out any repetitions.

Tsunade’s eyes widen. The entire gate was one giant seal. She feels slightly lightheaded as she tries to comprehend the implications that such a large seal has. The sheer amount of power that the gate-seal itself probably contained had to be greater than the combined power of all of Hokages. What the  _ hell  _ was behind the gate?

**“Finally, thought I would fall asleep before the woman made it here.”** A grouchy male’s voice says.

The voice is fainter than the one who had been speaking to her before, but it echos around her all the same. 

**“Shut up! Who gave you permission to speak?”** The loud, stronger voice says.  

**“Oh, don’t be such a bore. I don’t remember nominating you to be our spokesperson. Why can’t I speak to the lady?”** A female’s voice this time; faint like the grouchy male’s. 

**“Because I was here first and I’m smarter than all of you so shut up and watch the kid!”** The strong voice says. 

The voices are all coming from the other side of the gate but Tsunade can’t make out any forms but the disembodied voices are clearer now that she’s closer to where they’re originating from. She still can’t tell how many beings there are but she knows for certain that there are at least five different voices; with the one male’s being the most clear.

They sound big.

**“Just let Mr. Grouchy over there have his way or else he’ll get his tails in a twist and we’ll never hear the end of it. Frankly, I’d rather let him handle this situation than do it myself.”**  A different male’s voice; faint like the other two.

There’s a short moment of silence before a hysterical, slightly crazed laugh fills the air, making a shiver run down Tsunade’s spine. The laughter goes on, bouncing off unseen walls. Tsunade swears she hears a few exasperated sighs.

**“Then I vote for Oh-Great-One to take the lead.”** The voice says, gasping between insane giggles, it’s voice practically dripping with sarcasm. 

**“Idiots! You should show me more respect. It’s because of me that you are all even here in the first place!”** The strong voice says.

The moment the words are spoken the voices all protest in outrage, roars and growls blending into one deafening noise. Feeling like her eardrums are going to burst, Tsunade quickly covers her ears to block the noise but even then the sound penetrates and she can’t help but wince. The voices don’t show any signs of quieting and as nervous as Tsunade has been up till now, she has to get them to stop or her head is going to explode from all the racket. 

Besides, wasn’t the whole point of this little unexpected adventure because  _ they _ needed  _ her.  _ And instead of paying any attention to her they were bickering with each other like children and it was seriously grating on her nerves. 

Not wanting to risk taking her hands away from her ears Tsunade does the only thing she can think of. 

“HEY!” she yells as loud as she can.

The effect is immediate. In contrast to the deafening noise a few seconds ago, a deafening silence settles around them. Only to be broken by another round of insane giggling. A quiet thump followed by a ‘yip’ and the creepy laughter stops.

Taking the silence as her cue to continue talking, Tsunade takes a deep breath and tries to see beyond the bars into the darkness. The only thing she can make out are vague areas where the darkness seemed to shift, but nothing definite. “What am I supposed to do now?” she asks aloud, trying to ignore all the squabbling they had just been doing. Their childish fighting was kind of ruining her image of the all-powerful beings she had been building up in her head.

**“Get the kid.”** The strong voice says, assuming the leader role again; this time with no complaints. 

“I am assuming you are the leader among you all. How do I address you?” Tsunade asks. The more information she can get the better.

On the other side of the gate, something starts loudly splashing. The water, which had been consistently at her mid shin, begins to rise up to her waist as a wave passes through her. When the ripple passes, the water level falls down to her ankle. Another ripple approaches her; whatever is displacing that much water has to be huge. When she had walked, the water had barely rippled. 

**“Make no mistake Godaime Hokage, if it weren’t for the situation we are in we would not have contacted you. As we need your help, it is unavoidable. We are uncertain of how the kid wants to proceed but given his condition we had to make the decision for him and hope that it is what he would do.”**

Tsunade slowly nods, a few pieces coming together. Whoever she was talking to, they clearly took orders from U15399, or at the very least respected him enough to want to do what he would want. Was he their master of sorts?

The strong voice pauses for a moment, as if choosing its next words carefully.  **“We have been deliberating since our arrival about what path we should take. The best option we have right now is to reveal the truth to as few people as possible; ideally only one person. It would be beneficial for the kid if it is someone he trusts, preferably in a high social position who has the influence to allow the kid to do as he needs. Our only problem is that we also need someone who is also be able to heal him, which severely limits our options.”**

“And no one fits the bill better than me, right?” Tsunade asks.

**“Correct.”**

“But I don’t know this man or you, so how could he trust me?”

**“You may not know us, but we most certainly know you** , **”** the voice says. Amusement seeping through, though it mostly just sounds snarky.

Tsunade frowns. It’s true that a lot of people know her for her role in the War as one of the Sannin, or more recently as the Godaime Hokage, but she has a feeling the voice means it on a more personal level. And it also hasn’t escaped her notice that the voice hasn’t given her a name to call him.

The waves are gradually getting bigger. Tsunade hears low, rhythmic ‘thuds’ followed by the floor vibrating, as if some giant creature were walking towards her. The endless darkness on the other side of the gate shifts slightly and, for the first time, Tsunade can properly make out something.

Stepping out of the darkness, easily five-stories high, is a glowing red mass in the shape of a giant ape. The being isn’t completely solid, made up of what looks to be solely chakra. She can almost see straight through it, and looking through the giant ape’s chest she sees something that makes her gasp out loud.

The giant ape has four tails.

Tsunade will go to her grave trying to convince herself that she doesn’t stumble back and almost fall over in surprise. “Y-Yonbi,” she whispers, barely believing her eyes.

It wasn’t possible. When Jiraiya had first become aware of Akatsuki’s objectives he had gone out and confirmed the identities of all the jinchuriki. She can’t remember them all, but she knows the Yonbi jinchuuriki is an older man from Iwa; and Tsunade knows that it would take nothing less than the end of the world for Iwa to allow their weapon anywhere near Konoha. She might not remember any of the jinchuuriki’s names, but she’s seen profile pictures of each of the nine containers and she knows that this man isn’t one of them.

Had the previous Yonbi jinchuuriki been recently killed? It would have had to have happened within the last month though as Jiraiya’s last update had been right before he and Naruto left for their training trip. And U15399 had been brought in well before Jiraiya’s last update, so even if the Yonbi jinchuuriki has been killed there’s no way he could have gotten his hands on the Yonbi.

How could he be the Yonbi’s jinchuuriki? Was Jiraiya’s network, which had never failed him before, wrong? But then how could Iwa cover something this big up? They could probably hide that one of their jinchuuriki died but that they had lost the new one? They would have scoured the country searching for him if he really was the Yonbi container. None of this was making any sense. She’s missing something.

**“I have a name you know!”** the Yonbi says, irritated.

Tsunade can only gape at the giant ape. 

**“Pah! Not that you humans would care about something like that! And it’s not like I’d tell you it anyway! But it’s a good, strong name I’ll have you know!”** the Yonbi says, puffing his chest out. 

His voice, like all but one, is slightly faint; as if they are farther away than the one with the strong voice. Could that mean they were weaker than the leader? Who would the Yonbi even follow?

Tsunade’s brain jolts. If the Yonbi is one of the beings behind the gate, then who are the others? What could you stick in the same cage as a bijuu and not have said bijuu destroy it? Could there be—? No. Tsunade mentally shakes her head. She isn’t even going to  _ think  _ about something like that. It’s impossible after all.

The Yonbi kneels as close to the giant gate as it can. The water sloshing even more and rising up to Tsunade’s neck before falling back down again, leaving her as dry as before. The Yonbi brings forward cupped hands and Tsunade notices for the first time that the demon is actually holding something. With a gentleness that Tsunade can’t wrap her head around, the bijuu gently lies a tattered body down next to the gate.

The moment the prone form touches the water, the water level lowers till it’s no higher than a few inches. 

The body is an exact replica of U15399. Everything down to the last hair is exactly the same, but for one major difference. Whereas the U16399 she has been treating has umarred skin, this one has lacerations of various sizes covering his body. What skin she can see is painted a mosaic of black, purple, yellow and green. He looks like he’s been through a blender.

The Yonbi gently slides the battered body through the bars with his pinky. 

Tsunade rushes over to the man and kneels at his side. “My god,” she whispers as she takes full stock of the injuries. “Is this-?”

**“His soul, yes. We have been able to keep the fundamentals of it intact but fully healing it is something we cannot do.”** The strong voice says.

The Yonbi turns and walks back into the darkness, his glowing red form seeming to melt back into the pitch black. 

“I- I’m not sure I’m qualified to deal with this,” Tsunade protests as she looks down at the soul. How the hell is she supposed to fix something like this? Was healing a soul, when presented like this, the same as healing a body? Would healing jutsu even work on a soul, or inside a person’s mind? She has no previous experience to call upon to help her even set up a basis of where to start.

A few growls emit from the darkness and Tsunade involuntarily flinches. 

**“You** **_will_ ** **heal him!”** a faint female voice snaps. 

Tsunade grits her teeth. “I’m not saying I won’t try! Just don’t expect me to fix him up right away!” she yells back at the darkness.

Low thuds resound throughout the sewer and the water starts to ripple towards her again, barely noticeable due to the shallowness. Something is moving towards the gate again; something heavier than the Yonbi.

Tsunade can’t stop her eyes from bulging as red-orange fur emerges from the black, the contrasting colors jarring. She’d known, somewhere in the back of her mind, that this was a possibility. As improbable as it was, it was one of the only conclusion that made some sort of sense. Still, there really was no way she could have prepared herself for the sight of the Kyuubi.

As tall as the Yonbi, the Kyuubi is a frightening sight. But unlike the Yonbi, the Kyuubi has a solid form that showed off its gleaming fur and glowing slitted eyes. The giant fox lowers and turns its head to the side so one large, horrible eye is level with her. It bores straight into her and sends every instinct Tsunade has on high alert. 

**“You will heal him.”** Its voice is strong, its words an order. 

She can’t tear her eyes away from the terrible eye in front of her. It paralyzes her and it takes all her will just to slowly nod. Ah, she vaguely thinks, the Kyuubi is the one who is the leader. 

The Kyuubi lets out a snort, its nostrils flaring, and rises back to its full height, glaring down imperiously at her.  **“Well?”**

“Right.” Tsunade mumbles, looking back down at the soul-body. 

She gently arranges the man so he’s straight on his back and moves to sit next to his torso. She gathers chakra into her hands and gently places them over his chest, where the worst of the damage seemed to be at. She decides to skip over the basic healing jutsus and forces one of her own advanced healing jutsus on the soul. One she developed in the midst of the War when she had been tasked with healing shinobi that every other Healer had declared a lost cause.

For a long moment nothing happens so Tsunade urgently pushes more chakra into her hands. The very last thing she wants is to fail in healing the man. Even without the two bijuu who would probably kill her if she failed, she still would have put her all into this. Because this was new and this was interesting. She might have forgotten it for a while, but nothing was more satisfying than doing the impossible. And it had long become evident that awakening this particular man would be nothing short of a miracle.

Even as Tsunade pours as much chakra as she can into healing the damaged soul, nothing seems to happen. She sits back for a moment and wipes the sweat off her forehead. This isn’t working. She bites her lip and tries again, this time pouring in blank chakra to assist in a self-healing process rather than trying to force healing on the soul. 

Again, nothing.

Tsunade can hear the beings behind the gate shift restlessly. A low growl comes from the Kyuubi who os attentively sitting as close to the gate as he can without touching it. 

Tsunade takes a deep breath, trying to calm herself down, and tries to come up with a new approach. Chakra healing and self healing didn’t work. Next step would be to just make new organs and skin. 

She’ll be damned if she lets this stupid bijuu collector get the best of her. She will heal this man and then force an explanation out of him as to why the hell he has not only the Yonbi but also the Kyuubi sealed away inside of him. A Kyuubi which she knows for a fact is currently sealed inside of a certain loud-mouth blonde genin. And like hell is she going to ask the Kyuubi.

Sweat is practically rolling off Tsunade after few minutes and she grits her teeth together as she takes a moment to catch her breath. Why the hell is nothing working? If she knew this morning she was going to be doing this kind of work she would have made sure she was properly inebriated before coming.

The movements behind the gate are getting more agitated and Tsunade can practically feel the multiple sets of eyes boring into her.

**“If there is one thing that I have observed in the past few years, it’s that human sentimentality can play a defining role, often making the impossible possible.”** A soft female voice says.

Carefully avoiding the eyes of the Kyuubi, Tsunade looks incredulously into the darkness. What? That’s not exactly helpful.

The water falls still and the subsequent silence is deafening. She looks to the Kyuubi but it’s eyes are focused somewhere in the distance. Even though none of the beings are talking Tsunade swears they are communicating with each other.  She turns to, once more, try to heal the soul when the Kyuubi’s strong voice breaks the silence. 

**“The man who lies in your hospital. The soul you are healing. While he may be different in appearance, you still know him.”**

Tsunade stares down at the battered soul-body again and feels a lump rise in her throat. It’s been bugging her ever since she first saw the soul, since the Kyuubi had revealed himself. It’s ridiculous, utterly insane even, yet she can’t quite shake a nagging thought in the back of her head. 

This soul is vaguely familiar. 

“What— What is his name?” Tsunade asks, her voice strained as she can no longer deny what is right in front of her. Because a soul, a soul in its purest and simplest form, cannot lie.

There’s a pregnant pause that seems to last for an eternity and all Tsunade can hear is her heart pounding in her chest. Then, that insane giggling starts again, echoing all around, seeming to mock her. Almost as soon as it starts it’s forcefully choked off by something, but the damage is already done. Tsunade just knows that laugh will stay with her long after she leaves this place.

**“You know him as Naruto.”** The Kyuubi says.

The answer should have had more of an impact on her, but she had already known, known the moment she had touched the soul-body. But the rational part of her had rejected the idea because it hadn’t made any sense. Naruto was a thirteen year old genin who was currently traveling with Jiraiya, not some twenty-something year old man who’s been in a coma for the past three months. And most certainly not someone who has two bijuu sealed inside of him. But hearing it said aloud forces Tsunade to accept what she’s tried to ignore. Soul’s cannot lie, after all.

Tsunade turns back to the soul-body of Naruto and resumes healing; but this time she adds something different to her chakra. Though she still isn’t sure what all is going on and she has no idea how this is even possible, Tsunade knows she has to heal the man who is an older version of the brat she loves. With that in mind, she pours all her fondness and love for Naruto into her healing.

A thrill of excitement shoots through her when one of the scratches on the man’s chest slowly, so very slowly, knits itself back together. She allows herself a small smile before going back to work with renewed vigor. She will heal the brat till he’s as good as new and then she’s going to beat him up until he gives her a good explanation for what the hell is going on.

The waters around her shift as the beings within the massive cage move closer to the gate where the Kyuubi is attentively sitting. The pounding of their footsteps shake the entire sewer but Tsunade doesn’t turn around to look. She already knows what she will see. Her forced acceptance hadn’t been just about the one she is healing. 

Later, when Tsunade has exhausted herself of chakra, when her limbs are heavy and her head is dizzy, she allows herself to look at the gate. And sure enough, she sees exactly what she had suspected. 

Nine demons huddle together against the gate, looking down to the human who they are all sealed within. Eight of them glow with a bubbling red liquid and are nearly transparent. The Kyuubi alone has a solid form.

And if the first thing that Tsunade does when she goes home for the night, after promising legendary demons that she will be back in the morning to continue the healing of a man who shouldn’t exist, is drink herself into unconsciousness, well, she’s pretty sure she’s earned it. 


	4. And Into the Red

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> And Kakashi is finally here! Now the plot can finally start moving along!
> 
> For quick reference:  
> Ichibi- Shukaku  
> Nibi- Matatabi  
> Sanbi- Isobu  
> Yonbi- Son Gokuu  
> Gobi- Kokuou  
> Rokubi- Saiken  
> Nanabi- Choumei  
> Hachibi- Gyuuki  
> Kyuubi- Kurama
> 
> I can’t thank you all enough for all the positive comments!

Naruto discretely tugs at the porcelain mask that covers his face, that hides his identity. Again, he thinks of just how pointless the white mask is. His features had long ago changed from anything that could distinguish him as Naruto, but nonetheless Tsunade had insisted. And on top of having to wear an uncomfortable mask, Tsunade had even changed his name. What was it that she had named him? Oh right, Nise. How dull.

He was beginning to think the mask was just another portion of the punishment she had been dealing him ever since he woken up eight hours ago.

Really, it wasn’t like it was his fault. How was he supposed to know everything that was going on right off the bat? When he had finally awoken, the first thing he had seen was a woman who had died over two years ago. He had understandably freaked out a bit. And he still thought that it had been a perfectly appropriate response to flee the room. Unfortunately, Tsunade hadn’t agreed and hadn’t taken him jumping out the window very well. On the plus side, the subsequent beating had done more to ground him to reality than anything else probably would have. So, really, it could have been worse.

“Stop fidgeting brat or I won’t pull my punches this time,” Tsunade scolds.

“But Baa-chan, I just don’t get why it’s necessary for me to be here,” he says in what is definitely not a whine.

Tsunade looks at him with a too-sweet smile. “Of course it’s not _necessary_ for you to be here. But if I have to suffer through this then I’ll be damned if you don’t suffer with me.”

Despite the injustice of it all, Nise’s heart fills with joy. He’ll gladly suffer through facing Konoha’s Council a million times over if it means seeing Tsunade so alive. Although he would have preferred to do this after he has at least taken a nap.

After Tsunade’s chakra enhanced punches, Kurama and the other bijuu had explained to him everything that had happened while he was unconscious with Tsunade filling in the gaps. They had only just come up with a story to explain Nise’s appearance in Konoha when Tsunade decided that, since they wanted to control the flow of information, the best way to do that was to let everyone know at once rather than let rumors run awry. She had then declared an Emergency Council Meeting was the best route to take and that now was an appropriate time to call such a meeting. When Nise had asked if he could take a nap first he had been too tired to dodge her fist. Tsunade really was evil.

“Whenever you’re ready Hokage-sama,” the chunin guarding the door awkwardly says.

“Yes, yes, give us a second would you? They’re not going anywhere,” Tsunade grumbles. She takes a deep breath. “Remember brat, just let me do the talking. All you have to do is stand there.”

Even with the mask covering his face, Nise doesn’t roll his eyes in exasperation. He’s sure Tsunade would notice and he really has no desire to be hit again. He’s pretty sure she wasn’t pulling her punches.

“Let’s get this shit show over with,” Tsunade mumbles and pushes the double doors open before the chunin can.

Nise has never been inside the Council Chambers before but if he had to take a guess at what it looked like, he wouldn't have imagined something like this. A large circular room, each of the Council members sit high above in what look to be stands. The floor is bare except for a single desk set in the middle where Nise assumes one presents their case to the Council. In Nise’s opinion, it looks more like a courtroom, a place where punishment is dealt rather than village matters discussed.

Tsunade walks confidently to the center of the room and stands tall next to the desk. Nise follows quietly behind and tries not to look as exhausted as he feels.

He’s surprised to see that he recognizes a handful of faces. For some reason, it had never occurred to him that some of the clan heads were part of the Council, though the civilian representatives far out number them. Shikaku’s sharp eyes bore into him and they remind Nise so much of his Shikamaru’s that he has to look away in fear that he will see all his secrets. Inoichi’s gaze isn’t much better so Nise decides it probably for the best if he just doesn’t look up.

“Hokage-sama. A little more than a month into your new rule and this is the second Emergency Council Meeting you have called,” a raspy voice says.

Nise tenses. He knows that voice. He hasn’t thought about Danzo in years, had completely forgotten about his petty plans. He has to remember to tell Tsunade about— Nise stops that train of thought and frowns. Since waking up they had only talked about forming a cover for him, which had seemed the most important thing a few hours ago. But now that he thinks about it, Tsunade had seemed oddly reluctant to change the topic. Almost as if she didn’t want to hear anything about the future. She _had_ rushed them over here. He grits his teeth.

“I think we can all agree the first was necessary, Danzo, with the village being in chaos in all. As for today, I am doing this Council a courtesy,” Tsunade says, her voice just as condescending as Danzo’s had been and Nise loves her all the more for it. “It will be much easier on everyone if you hear about U15399 from me rather than from gossiping mouths.”

The Council members shift in their seats but otherwise give no reaction.

“Hokage-sama, my latest report showed no improvement in— Oh, I see,” Inoichi says.

Nise can feel Inoichi’s eyes burning into him, can practically hear his mind connecting non existent dots. Making mental leaps that only he can. Kurama had mentioned the Yamanaka Head had tried rummaging through his head. He’s really hoping he’ll never have to talk to the man.

“Indeed.” Tsunade waves a careless hand at Nise. “This is Nise, formerly U15399. As you can see he has made a full recovery.”

“And why is he wearing an ANBU uniform?” Danzo asks.

“Nise is my personal bodyguard,” Tsunade says and all hell breaks loose.

“The Hokage has no personal bodyguard!”

“Is he not a foreign shinobi?”

“He has no Kohona citizenship!”

“Was he cleared by T&I?”

“But where did he come from?”

“He’s not from here!”

Someone loudly clears their throat and the shouts gradually stop. “There is already a jounin unit assigned to the Hokage’s protection. Perhaps Hokage-sama can explain how this position of personal bodyguard came to be and why a previously unknown entity is in said position.” The Hyuuga Clan Head says, looking as unbothered as always.

But Nise remembers. He remembers Hiashi’s quiet despair at the loss of Neji and his stoic resolve after Hinata’s death. He had been withdrawn his last few months, but then again most people were in the end. He had been there for the worst of the battles, managing to survive while his family and friends died around him. His luck never ran out on the battlefield, it had taken him stepping in front of Nise to block an attack for him to fall. When he had died, it had been with a smile on his face, finally free to be with his family. Hiashi might not wear his heart on his sleeve, but his calm face was nothing but a carefully crafted mask.

Tsunade nods her head towards Hiashi in acknowledgment. “Nise is not a foreign shinobi, he’s one of ours. He was hand picked by Sarutobi-sensei for a classified mission that took him outside of the village and he has only recently returned. It was Sensei who deemed the position appropriate, not me,” Tsunade says. They didn’t like throwing the blame at a dead man, but they had both agreed that Sarutobi wouldn’t have minded if it meant helping the village. “Since the old man is— since I am Hokage now, Nise’s mission parameters fall to me. Parameters which do not concern anyone other than whoever is Hokage.” She looks over at him. “He’s grown so much since I last saw him that I didn’t recognize him at first.” She looks back at the Council, “But there is no doubt that he was the previous Hokage’s trusted guard. And as such he is now mine.”

“I have never heard of the Hokage having a personal guard before,” a fierce eyed woman says. The red markings on her cheek must mean she is the head of the Inuzuka Clan.

“He wouldn’t be very good at his job if he was well known Atama-san,” Tsunade says.

Atama’s lip curls up but she doesn’t say anything else.

“He must have been gone for quite a long time for you not to recognize him, Hokage-sama,” a man Nise doesn’t recognize says.

“Thirteen years is a long time, yes.”

“An unusually long time,” Danzo says. “More than enough time for loyalties to change.”

“For those of weak heart perhaps,” Tsunade bites out. “And Jiraiya has been checking up on him over the years.”

“Jiraiya-sama is also aware of him? Then we are certain this man is who he claims to be. Would he be willing to vouch for him?” Hiashi asks.

“You are more than willing to call him back here and ask him. Good luck explaining to him that my word was not sufficient enough.” Tsunade says, her tone daring anyone to question her.

“He doesn’t look that old,” a woman dressed in civilian clothes says, oblivious to the sudden tension in the room. “How old was he when he left for this mission? Take off that mask young man.”

Nise stiffens at the inappropriate request. Even if he wasn’t officially ANBU, no one but the Hokage had the authority to remove an ANBU’s mask. While the uncomfortable looks on the Clan Heads faces makes him feel a little better, it’s not by much. He looks to Tsunade and tilts his head in question. They had planned to reveal his face but it wasn’t supposed to be like this.

“Ritsu-san gave you an order young man,” the same unknown man from before says. “Are you denying the will of the Council?”

“Oh shut it Takuya,” Tsunade snaps. “You and Ritsu do not speak for the entirety of the Council. And even if you did, Nise does not answer to you. He answers to me and me alone.” She turns Nise and gives a small, apologetic smile.

Nise nods back. He might not answer to the Council, but refusing this won’t win them any favors. He reaches up and takes off his mask.

That same restlessness takes over the Chamber as the henge attached to the mask falls away, revealing red hair and arms covered in seals.

“He’s still a child!” The woman, Ritsu, blurts out. “There’s no way he was the Sandaime’s guard thirteen years ago.”

Nise blinks, nonplussed. No civilian had ever seen him as a child before. He was always the Kyuubi container. And when he finally gained their respect, he had been their saviour, shouldering all their hopes. How anyone could look at him and think he was a child was beyond him. He feels like he’s a hundred years old. He is literally on his second life.

“He must’ve shown some potential young. No doubt Sarutobi-sama picked him before he even entered the Academy. That way there would be no official shinobi record of him. Easier for denial if he ever got caught,” Shikaku says in a slow drawl, answering the question before Tsunade can.

Nise purposely doesn’t look at the man. He doesn’t know what game Shikaku is already playing but it's pointless to try to figure it out. Even though he’s older now, thinks he might be around twenty-two, he knows that if he tries to outmaneuver or outsmart the Nara he will probably lose. His best bet was to just ignore him and hope it all worked out.

“That hair—” someone starts to say but Tsunade speaks over them.

“I would like to remind the Council that I have no obligation to share any of this with you. In fact, since Nise is, again, _my personal bodyguard_ I don’t really have to inform you about any of this. If you have any further questions regarding Nise they can be sent through official channels and I will respond accordingly.”

Nise slips his mask back on to hide his smile. No doubt any such requests will be filed, sorted and then mysteriously lost before they can reach her desk.

“And what was the mission that Nise was sent on?” Shikaku asks lazily, almost as an afterthought.

Nise isn’t fooled in the slightest, and judging by Tsunade’s pursed lips, neither is she. They had been hoping the words “classified” would carry enough weight to discourage any such questions, but they both know that while the Hokage might be able to get away with having a private bodyguard and running secret ops, eventually, the Hokage must report to the Council. Nise is intensely grateful that Tsunade made him sit down and come up with a compressive cover before coming here. He’s not sure how long he would have lasted without her.

His sharp eyes pick up on Inoichi’s arm discreetly laying on the back of the Nara’s chair. There’s no doubt in his mind that his fingers are touching Shikaku’s neck, their thoughts flowing through the connection, whispering to each other as they try to see what isn’t being said.

Nise is definitely going to be avoiding them.

“It was related to the bijuus and their containers, the jinchuuriki.”

This time the Council makes no effort to hide their discomfort. Though the Clan Heads merely frown in confusion.

“I hope that he was assassinating those evil beasts.”

Tsunade immediately zeros in on the Council member. “Oh, so you want us to assassinate innocent humans just so the beasts that they contain within them can be set free to go on rampages. You would do well to remember that it is these so called ‘evil beasts’ that are the only thing holding back the bijuu.”

“Forgive Ritsu-san, Hokage-sama,” the Inuzuka Head says. “She speaks without thinking. But I must admit that I have some reservations about this. Should we not know more about this mission? You said he left thirteen years ago. That would be around the time the Kyuubi attacked our village.”

“Nise left shortly after. Anything there is to know about a tailed beast, he knows. Our ignorance in the past will not be repeated.”

“What exactly doe—”

Tsunade slams her hand on the desk. “I am the Hokage. This job isn’t just respect, status and power. I am in charge of taking care of this village. I am charged with the safety of all the shinobi and citizens within its walls. My job is to do everything within my power to make sure that Konohagakure prospers. Everything that I do is in the best interest of the village.” Tsunade looks down and Nise hates it. She should bow to no one. “I request that you ask no more questions as I will not be able to answer them.” She looks up with steel in her eyes. “The more I say the more danger I will be placing everyone in.”

Silence suffocates the Chamber as the Council mull over her words.

Danzo leans forward, his eyes sharp. “Hokage-sama, it is not solely up to you wh—”

“I think we’ve heard enough,” Inoichi says. “There is nothing any of us can contribute on the matter of the bijuu. Tsunade-sama’s word is enough for me at this time. I trust Hokage-sama judgment in this matter.”

His hand hasn’t moved from behind Shikaku and Nise wonders how much of his words are Shikaku’s. To his surprise it’s the Aburame head who speaks up.

“The Aburame Clan has always respected the Hokage’s requests. In this too, we shall honor.”

One by one, the Council members incline their heads, though the civilian representatives look reluctant. Danzo’s carefully blank face looks downright murderous.

“Council,” Tsunade says with a small nod. She turns on her heel and confidently strides out.

Nise follows behind her thinking that, all things considered, it went better than he thought it would.  

The door has just barely slammed shut behind him when Tsunade lets out a sigh. “I need a drink.”

* * *

 Less than four hours later, when Nise nods off while Tsunade is bragging about a poker game she won in Kumo, she unceremoniously kicks him out of her office, telling him to go to his new apartment and get some rest. When Nise points out that she’s the reason he hasn’t had any rest, he only just manages to jump out of the window in time to dodge her fist.

It takes twice as long as it should for Nise to reach his apartment because he can’t help but to stop and stare at the sheer liveliness of the village. Dozens of people bustle around the streets, shinobi jump from rooftop to rooftop and the smell of fried food permeates the air. There’s just so much _life_ around him that it threatens to overwhelm him. When a vendor approaches him trying to sell him a hand-made necklace, Nise just stares at him, his stomach in his throat. It’s all so _normal_ and Nise doesn’t remember how to do normal. He runs the rest of the way to the apartment.

He slams his front door shut and, after his heart stops racing, inspects his new home. It only consists of a kitchen, living room, a bathroom and a bedroom but Nise loves it. It’s so much more than he’s had in years, more than he’d hoped for. He dumps his two bags of ANBU uniforms that Tsunade had given him on the floor of his bedroom and then throws himself face first on the bed.

For the first time since arriving here, he lets himself truly relax.

Going from from a coma to standing before the Council in less than twelve hours had been quite a strain. Even if Tsunade had fully healed his soul, being unconscious for so long had taken its toll on him and all he wanted to do was sleep for days. He closes his eyes and searches inside of himself, searches for the warm mix of turbulent chakras. When he finds the chaos, the last of his stress leaves his body. When he had first woken up, the first thing he had heard was Kurama’s voice and while he had heard all their voices when they were planning his cover, it just wasn’t the same as feeling their chakra flow through him. He doesn’t know what he would do without Tsunade on his side, but he’s certain he wouldn’t still be sane if the bijuus weren’t still with him.

A symphony of low growls echo in his head, their pleasure obvious, and Nise is suddenly standing in front of a giant gate.

He gently caresses the gate. “I can take this down now. I’ll stop the Akatsuki and Obito and then they’ll be no one left who can hurt you guys.”

Matatabi waves one of her two tails and it hits the gate with a loud BANG. “I hate this seal,” she growls.

“I promise, as soon as I’m rested I’ll get rid of the seal. Then you guys will be free,” Nise says.

Matatabi hisses at him and hits the gate again. “You’re still as slow as ever,” she growls.

“Naruto...Nise. We have no intention of leaving you,” Isobu quietly says.

“It’s not like we have anywhere to go anyway,” Kurama mumbles and ignores the glares thrown at him.

Nise’s eyes sting and there’s a knot in his throat. He wants them to stay so badly. “Gyuuki?” He asks hesitantly. “Killer B is here. You can go to him. Merge with your younger self.” His heart aches as he forces the words out. He will let Gyuuki go, of course, but it’s gonna hurt like a bitch.

Gyuuki stares down at him for a moment. “My younger self will benefit from my memories but he has his own path to follow. Destiny has lead me to you for a reason, Nise. I can not leave you now.”

Nise leans against the gate and fights back his tears. “And you, Kokuou?” He asks. Kokuou’s pacifist nature is no secret among them and Nise knows had badly she just wants to be left alone.

Kokuou looks up from where she’s been resting against Shukaku’s tail. Her five tails briefly thump against the ground but she doesn’t say anything. She closes her eyes and lays her head back down. Shukaku’s eyes follow her movements but he doesn’t say anything either, Kokuou’s presence always seeming to calm him.

“We won’t leave you till you die!” Choumei chirps and her inappropriately happy tone makes Nise chuckle.

Matatabi throws her head back haughtily. “I’m offended you even thought that we would leave. All I said was that I hate this dumb gate.”

Nise wipes at his eyes and looks up at the bijuu, all huddled around the gate. He smiles. “I don’t plan on dying for a long time you know!”

“All the more reason to start planning,” Saiken says.

Nise nods and closes his eyes. They were on their own here. When the Council meeting had ended, Nise had quickly discovered that Tsunade really _was_ reluctant to hear anything of the future. She had been adamant about him not telling her too much, saying it would only cause problems if she knew. Her argument that the more she knew the more she could accidentally change the event timeline made sense. If it was only him changing events then it would be easier to keep track of what might happen next. She had then lectured him for an hour on the importance of keeping secrets to oneself and then had proceeded to drill him on whether he had had a girlfriend.

“I know,” he says. The water recedes into nothing as he lies down on the floor. The bijuu immediately come forward, situating themselves so they're all lying as close to him as the gate allows. “I just need to rest for a few hours,” he mumbles. He closes his eyes and falls asleep, their wild chakra washing over him like a soothing balm.

* * *

 Genma walks through the village, chewing on his senbon needle in irritation. If one more person approached him asking about Nise he might seriously turn them into a pincushion. With the Sandaime’s death so fresh in everyone's mind, it was only natural that they would be suspicious of the Godiame’s new shadow. But it was literally the _only_ thing any shinobi had been talking about for the past few days.

Since his sudden appearance three days ago, no one had been able to approach the guy. The “Personal Bodyguard” was glued to Tsunade’s side and no one was crazy enough to just whimsically approach the Hokage and question the validity of a man she obviously cared about. And when he wasn’t glued to her side, he was nowhere to be found. Being part of the Hokage’s guard meant he was bound to run into the man, so he supposed his colleagues were right when they assumed he had met the new guy. But still, it was freaking annoying being bombarded by questions twenty-four-seven.

It was only that much more annoying since he actually liked the guy. Like everyone else, he’d had his suspicions, but seeing the Godaime genuinely smile around the man made it impossible to keep up the distrust. Still, it was probably the genuine smiles Nise gave Tsunade in return that made him involuntarily accept him.

Although it amused him to no end that of all the invasive questions his colleagues tried to bribe him to find out, everyone had somehow managed to avoid commenting on Nise’s bright red hair and the complex fuuinjutsu inked on his arms. No one wanted to be the one to open that can of worms.

He’s walking by the memorial stone when he sees an ANBU casually standing in front of the stone, their mask hooked on their belt. To an untrained eye it looks as if they are patiently waiting for someone. Genma freezes. Kakashi wasn’t supposed to be back from his mission for another two days. Him and the rest of the guys were supposed to meet up tonight to determine how they were going to break the news to the man. He twirls his senbon around his mouth and wonders if he’ll survive stepping on this particular minefield by himself.

Kakashi had always been an elusive bastard, but rejoining ANBU two months ago had truly brought out the worst in him. He’s really not looking forward to Kakashi seeing that red hair, something that will most definitely set him off and make him insufferable.

Kakashi’s head tilts to the side and Genma despairs at the fact that he’s been noticed. There’s no way he can walk away now. Besides, he tries to persuade himself, they haven't had a proper conversation in a while. Though it’s been mostly because of Kakashi taking missions like they’re going out of style.

With a sigh, he walks over and stands next to Kakashi. Honestly, Genma thinks, the sacrifices he makes for his friends. Predictably, Kakashi doesn’t say anything. He just stares at the memorial stone and lets Genma stew in his own discomfort. Genma tries to think of something safe to say but there’s just so much crap to talk about.

‘Hey, did you know you’ve been more reckless than usual lately?’

‘Hey, did you know there’s a guy who looks like an Uzumaki running around with the Hokage?’

‘Hey, did you know your friends are here for you.’

He chews on his senbon and wonders what the chances of Gai suddenly showing up are. No one can get Kakashi out of one of his moods quite like he can.

“I saw Asuma after I finished debriefing.” Kakashi finally says. No doubt only after he deemed Genma sufficiently uncomfortable enough. “He ran away when he saw me. And then I saw Kurenai on my way here. She took one look at me and ran away as well.”

Genma doesn’t bother to hide his grimace. All his friends are cowards. Of course he would be the only one brave enough to confront Kakashi. Though looking at Kakashi, who’s now staring intently at him, he thinks maybe it’s just that their self preservation instincts are better than his.

“Why is everyone avoiding me, Genma-kun?” he asks with that irritating eye smile.

Genma scratches his chin and decides he might as well go all in. “You’ve only been in the village for three days since your genin team—” he pauses, uncertain how to continue. And damn if navigating a minefield wasn’t easier than this. “Since your team went their separate ways.”

“That’s one way of saying it,” he says lightly.

Genma ignores him. “If you keep this up, you’re going to burn out in a few months. You can’t keep doing this. You need to rest. You’re not invincible.”

There’s an orange book in Kakashi’s hand.

“We’re all worried about you. There was a reason you left ANBU, remember? With the way things are going, you’re just going to end up in that same situation. Kakashi, you haven’t even antagonised Gai in weeks.”

Kakashi gives a noncommittal hum. “That’s not answering my question. Why don’t you tell me what you really want to say, Genma-kun,” he says without even looking up from his book.

Genma’s not really sure what he was thinking going into this conversation with no backup. He runs a hand through his hair. “Don’t think I’m letting this go, Kakashi. We _will_ have this conversation. ANBU isn’t for you.”

Kakashi turns a page.

Genma sighs. “You remember that Unknown Yugao and Hayate found a few months ago? You know, the one who was supposed to be classified but everyone knows about because Yugao-chan and Hayate-kun spent like a week locked in the Intelligence Division because they wanted to make sure the Unknown hadn’t screwed with their heads? Well, he finally woke up last week and Hokage-sama’s told the Council some wild story that we’re all split on if we believe or not.”

“What does that have to do with avoiding me?”

Genma shifts his senbon to the other side of his mouth. Minefield. “Hokage-sama claims the man was the Sandaime’s personal bodyguard and in lieu of his death, he is her bodyguard now.

Kakashi doesn’t so much as raise an eyebrow and sometimes Genma really hates him.

“So this guy who no one has ever seen or heard of before has been following Hokage-sama around for the past few days in a position that no one has ever heard of before. And to see them together you would think that he was her long lost son or something, what with the way she dotes on him.”

That gets his attention, though he still doesn’t look up from his book. “Tsunade-sama doesn’t like anyone or anything but sake,” he says. “And her word should be enough to vouch for this man. I still don’t see how any of this concerns me.”

Minefield. Minefield. No matter how he turns it over in his head he can’t think of a delicate way to say ‘He looks like Kushina Uzumaki’s long lost brother. You know, your sensei’s wife, the woman who practically adopted you. Haha, hope you don’t have a mental break down when you see him, you emotionally constipated idiot.’

Before he can say anything, a loud crash resonates through the air followed by a panicked voice. “Hokage-sama! Please stop! You’re going to destroy the village!”

Genma eagerly latches onto the distraction, instantly recognizing the situation. It’s become too common place over the past few days for him not to realize what’s happening. “What was that?” he asks, almost too eagerly. “I should check it out.”

Kakashi’s side eye shows he’s not fooled in the slightest but Genma honestly couldn’t care less. He takes off towards training ground two where he knows Tsunade and Nise will inevitably end up. He feels Kakashi follow behind him and can’t make up his mind if that’s a good thing or not.

He stops at the edge of the tree line, not quite stepping into the training ground, and waits as the voices and crashes come closer and closer. Kakashi stops at his side.

Maniacal laughter fills the air and Nise bursts through the tree line at the opposite side of the training ground. “I told you! You’re getting old!” He yells over his shoulder. “It’s not my fault you can’t keep up, you old hag!”

Kakashi’s breath hitches next to him and the fact that he even heard it in the first place is a sign of just how caught off guard the man is. But Genma can’t really blame him. The first time he met Nise, he had almost overlooked the man, his generic ANBU uniform being one of many and unremarkable. But with no mask on, his long flaming red hair and intricate fuuinjutsu displayed on his arms were anything but subtle. The man screamed Uzumaki. Genma chews anxiously on his senbon and wonders what the chances are of him being able to slip away without Kakashi noticing.

“Nise-san! Please stop antagonizing Hokage-sama!” an ANBU says as they flicker next to the red head, carefully landing a few meters away from the man.

“OLD?!” An enraged Tsunade screeches as she too bursts onto the training grounds. “YOU DISRESPECTFUL BRAT! I’LL SHOW YOU OLD!” She charges straight at Nise, too fast for Genma to properly see.

Nise screams in delight and the Hokage is suddenly right in front of the red head, punching the ground. The ground crumbles beneath her and Nise’s screams turn into the hysterical laughter as they both fall into the crater Tsunade’s punch has created.

“Hokage-sama!” The ANBU says, standing on the edge of the crater and looking down into it. “You really don’t have time to be playing games, you have paperwork to finish. Nise-san! Please end this ridiculous game, Hokage-sama clearly tagged you.”

“Mouse-san!” Nise whines as he crawls out of the crater. “Why do you always take Baa-chan’s side? Yeah she tagged me but she broke the rules! We agreed that we wouldn't destroy anything and she punched like a dozen trees! So her tag doesn’t count!”

The ANBU rubs his temples and Genma is acutely sympathetic. He had been on guard yesterday and, for two hours, had to listen to them argue about how much sake was an appropriate amount to drink in a day.

Tsunade jumps out of the crater and puts her hands on her hips. “You ran through a fence first,” she argues.

“Yeah, but that doesn’t count!” Nise protests. “I didn’t see it!”

Tsunade snorts. “Come on, brat,” she says, rubbing Nise’s hair. “You need a shower, you’re filthy. Who let you roll around in the dirt?”

They start walking back the way they had come so Genma barely hears Nise’s outraged shriek of “You blew up the ground in my face!” The ANBU wearily follows behind them and then training ground two is quiet once more.

Genma holds his breath and braces himself.

“Explain,” Kakashi demands.

Genma blinks in surprise. He had honestly expected the man to walk off in silence, ask for Nise’s routine so he could start stalking him or just pretend like he had never seen red hair before. He hadn’t really considered the option that he would want to, willingly, talk about it.

“Oh well, it’s like I said before—”

“No,” he interrupts him and Genma almost takes a step back at his tone. Kakashi’s lone grey eye bores into him. “Explain,” he says firmly.

Genma chews on his senbon and stares back. It’s moments like this that remind him how easy it is to forget who Kakashi is. With more than half his face hidden and a frivolous attitude, it always seems like Kakashi never takes anything seriously. Even when they run missions together he has his nose stuck in an Icha Icha book and gives orders as if they are nothing more than last minute thoughts. He indulges in asinine competitions with Gai, goes out drinking with Asuma and teases the new jounin. It’s so easy to forget that Kakashi was already a jounin at an age when most were just graduating from the Academy. So easy to forget that he had been trained by the Yondaime Hokage. So easy to forget that sometimes Shikaku-sama came to him when he couldn’t figure something out. That he was the infamous Copy Cat Ninja.

Genma can’t recall a time that Kakashi’s been this serious since he left ANBU. Maybe he was in the days following the Last Uchiha’s betrayal, but Kakashi had made himself scarce then. Genma hadn’t wanted to fight Kakashi when he was a grave teenager but he definitely never wants to be on the opposing side of a serious adult Kakashi.

The grey eye doesn’t blink. Genma shifts his senbon to the other side of his mouth.

“Hokage-sama has never said a last name, she only calls him Nise. I never knew Kushina-san the way you did, but some of his mannerisms are the same. There are some things that can’t be faked and I’ve seen some of the seals on his body up close. They’re the real deal, some super advanced shit that I can’t even begin to comprehend.”

Kakashi still doesn’t blink and even though his Sharingan is covered, Genma still feels like it’s watching him. He resigns himself to the fact he’s going to be stuck in training ground two for a while. The next time he sees Asuma and Kurenai he is going to throw them to the mercy of Gai.

“Ibiki told me that Inoichi-sama was adamant a few weeks ago that Hokage-sama didn’t know who Nise was but then three days ago...” 

* * *

 Four days after his return to Konoha and subsequent conversation with Genma, Kakashi comes to the conclusion that something is wrong with Nise. Two days of following the red head around had been less than fruitful but that just reaffirmed his conclusion.

He doesn’t mean the kind of wrong that Yugao whispers about: “You didn’t see what he looked like before. When we found him. I don’t know how anyone could have recovered from that.”

Nor does he mean the kind that Anko has been yelling about to anyone who will listen: “This whole thing reeks of deception! We can’t just trust anything that comes crawling out of the forest! And what kind of bullshit is this personal bodyguard business?!”

He was wrong in the way that he rubbed Kakashi’s senses wrong. His chakra felt too rough. His hair was too red. His skin was too clean. Everything about him was just _wrong_ and it irritated Kakashi like nothing before had. It wasn’t that Kakashi found the red head to be suspicious, even though their story reeks of deception he trusts Tsunade enough to follow along with whatever she's doing, but he didn’t like being kept in the dark. He knew they were lying, but while everyone was arguing over _what_ they were lying about, he was more concerned about _why_ they were lying. He doubted Nise had any real ill will towards Tsunade, so what was the point of such an elaborate story? Why go through so much trouble?

Kakashi looks around his bland apartment. He has to talk to the Hokage. Others might be too afraid to confront her head on, but Kakashi had learned long ago that sometimes it was better to ask for forgiveness than permission. Besides, it wasn’t like he head had much left to lose. “What the hell, why not?” he mumbles, and heads out the door. 

* * *

 “And?” the Hokage says, looking vaguely pissed.

“So, in conclusion Hokage-sama, I believe that it would be beneficial for Nise-san if I were to help him with his transition into shinobi life here. Show him the ropes, so to speak.”

Tsunade looks distinctly unimpressed. “Just spit it out Kakashi. I have a meeting with the Civilian Market Union in twenty minutes and I don’t have the time or the energy to play with you.”

Kakashi’s mask hides his grimace. Well, he thinks, at least he will only have to run from her for twenty minutes. “What happened that caused Nise-san to sustain such wounds?”

Tsunade’s face goes from vaguely pissed to full-on anger and Kakashi silently prays that Tsunade will at least give him a few seconds head start.

“And where, exactly, did you hear such rumors?”

Kakashi quickly reevaluates his life choices and figures now is as good as time as any to hold his tongue. Perhaps he should have just continued following Nise around, maybe even passively confront him. At least then he wouldn’t be facing down an angry Hokage.

Tsunade slams her hand on the table but Kakashi refused to react. “I have given Nise my public support and confidence. Are you doubting your Hokage, shinobi?”

“No, Hokage-sama,” he immediately answers and drops down onto one knee.

“Then what, exactly, are you hoping to accomplish by asking questions you know you won’t get the answers to?”

“I had hoped that Hokage-sama would be able to put my worries at ease.”

Tsunade rubs her temples. “You don’t have to worry about him, Kakashi. He won’t do anything to harm Konoha. Besides, he’s leaving the village tomorrow on a mission.”

Kakashi tenses and slowly stands back up. He can’t figure out what the _wrongness_ is if Nise wasn’t nearby. “Alone?”

“Yes. Alone,” she says, the irritation returning to her eyes.

“Perhaps it would be best if someone were to accompany him.”

“No.”

“Someone like me.”

“No, Kakashi.”

“You are obvious emotionally connected to this man. Are you sure your judgment is clear in this situation? A second point of view might be bene—” Kakashi dodges the desk Tsunade throws at him and vaguely wonders why his mouth just can't seem to stay shut.

“My judgment is unclear? You don’t know the first thing about Nise, stalking him around for two days does not make you an expert on him. And yet you come in here and start making accusations? No, Kakashi, I am not giving you permission to go with him. And besides, you’re not even qualified for this mission.”

Kakashi carefully ignores the bit about his following Nise being discovered. “There are very few things that I’m not qualified for,” he says slowly.

Tsunade glares and sits back down. “But nonetheless, there are things.”

Kakashi purses his lips. He doesn’t need his failings pointed out; the past few months have shown him exactly where he is lacking. “No one was qualified for handling the Kyuubi in Naruto. And no one knew the extent of Itachi’s influence over Sasuke,” he says, his voice flat and he’s not sure who he’s trying to convince.

Tsunade sighs. “Yes,” she says with a small nod and it feels like an apology.

“But,” Kakashi drawls, “Nise-san’s mission was about the bijuus, no? So he must know a lot about them. Who else has the most to gain from learning from him? I’m a fast learner, but I can’t learn from an absent teacher. Hokage-sama, allow me to go on this mission.”

She sighs, her eyes looking every year her age. “Kakashi. Since your team— For the past two months you have been on back-to-back ANBU missions. You’re killing yourself. You need to take a break. Rest. Recover.”

Kakashi brushes her words off just as he had Genma’s. His failures are weighing too heavily on his shoulders right now and if he stops to think about them he’ll go mad. Figuring out what was wrong with Nise was the perfect distraction. “Hokage-sama, with all due respect, I can not stay in this village right now.”

“Fine,” she says throwing her hands up. “The brat has it coming anyway,” she mumbles. “Tomorrow 0800, the main gate. Pack light and expect to be gone for a while.”

“Thank you,” he bows and turns to head out.

“He is team leader though. You must do everything he says. If he says run, you run. If he says to forget everything you see, you will forget it.”

Kakashi looks into her eyes but they give away nothing. “Yes, Hokage-sama.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Also, you may notice that when the bijuu are speaking I no longer bolded their words. This is because it is Nise that is hearing them.


	5. Irreversible Catalysts

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey all! I mentioned before that I’m kind of making this story up as I go along and WOW I don’t know how people do this. I really feel like I should have structured this or made an outline before I started posting but oh well! I have a ton of respect for people who just free write stories. From now on I have a more solid idea of where the story is going so it should be more consistent.  
> Also, this is only vaguely proof read so please excuse any spelling/grammatical errors.

Nise paces back and forth in front of Konoha’s main gate. He was supposed to leave twenty minutes ago. He was supposed to leave twenty minutes ago _by himself_. He doesn’t know what had overcome Tsunade to make her suddenly decide that he needed a partner for this mission, but it's incredibly inconvenient. He makes another pass by the gate. He has a horrible feeling about who his partner is going to be.

“Yo,” a voice says from behind him.

Nise whips around and the dog ANBU mask does nothing to hide Kakashi’s identity from him.

He and the bijuu had spent two days planning and they had quickly realized that, while they can account for their own actions, it was near impossible to predict all the possible consequences of said actions. Gyuuki and Choumei had been the loudest voices in saying that each action they took would cause an unpredictable chain reaction. As such, they had only come up with a generalized plan, one which they could alter and adapt as new obstacles presented themselves. Still, there were a few things that they hadn’t been able to settle on.

He was confident that his cover, with Tsunade’s support, would hold for almost everyone, but there were a handful of people who would be able to trip him up. Tsunade had been in contact with Jiraiya so he was already aware of the situation and Nise was intensely grateful for that. Lying to Jiraiya would have been impossible.

But then there was Kakashi. Nise just knew he wouldn’t be able to keep the truth from him for too long. The man was too smart for his own good and all it would take would be a few mistakes and he would see right through him. But it wasn’t just that Kakashi took the ‘underneath the underneath’ thing to a new level. Whenever Nise thought about the man he was overwhelmed with so many emotions that it was impossible to think straight. When he had noticed Kakashi following him the past few days he had felt like he was being suffocated.

Nise looks over but one glance at the ANBU clad man and his stomach turns in protest. He jerks back around.

He and the bijuu had eventually decided that it was best to keep their interactions as limited as possible but it seemed like that plan was being thrown out the window. Nise is going to be stuck with him for at least two weeks.

“Follow me,” he mumbles grumpily before Kakashi can say another word. He runs through the gate with no intention of stopping until he reaches his destination.

* * *

They run without stopping through the day and through the night. The sun is just starting to rise when Nise starts to feel a little bit guilty. He hasn’t looked behind him once, but the quiet thumps of feet behind him ensure that Kakashi has kept pace with him. Which is as impressive as it is stupid. They should have stopped for a break hours ago; Kakashi has to be exhausted. Nise almost smiles at the man’s stubbornness, but the image of his Kakashi placing a seal on his chest burns behind his eyes and he frowns.

It it only when the sun shines bright overhead that Nise allows himself to admit that maybe he is acting a little childishly. It’s not this Kakashi’s fault that he’s, well, Kakashi. It’s not his fault that Nise is so incapable of sorting out his feelings.

Nise stops under a crop of trees. “We’ll stop here for the day and sleep. We’ll continue tonight,” he says. Out of the corner of his eye he sees Kakashi and is startled to see he isn’t wearing his ANBU mask anymore. Just because he wasn’t wearing his he hadn’t expected Kakashi to do the same. Nise can see his forced steady breathing and looks away in shame.

Though neither of them say a word, they set up the customary traps and then Nise heads to set up the tents while Kakashi fixes some food. They’re sitting on the leaf-strewn ground and Nise is halfway through his second sandwich when Kakashi finally deigns to speak.

“So...What's the mission?” he asks.

Nise wants to scream and laugh at the same time. Of course Tsunade hadn’t explain the mission. Of course Kakashi took it anyway. Now that he thinks about it, it probably wasn’t Tsunade who decided he needed a partner for this mission, Kakashi had no doubt wrangled his way here somehow. He says a silent apology to Tsunade for doubting her wisdom and hopes she never finds out he second-guessed her.

“We’re going to go see the Kyuubi,” he says, because it's the truth.

There is a beat of silence, then, “Naruto.”

“What?” Nise reflexively asks and internally cringes at responding to the name. His old name. Nise opens his mouth to give an excuse but thankfully Kakashi speaks first.

“The Kyuubi vessel has a name. It’s Naruto. He was a student of mine.”

Nise doesn’t say anything, not sure how to respond.

“Rumor is you were on a mission pertaining to the bijuu these past few years. Surely you must have known that Naruto was the Kyuubi jinchuuriki? I can’t help but wonder what you want with Naruto now? Why not earlier?”

“Naruto is the Kyuubi,” Nise carefully says.

Kakashi raises an unimpressed eyebrow and Nise feels embarrassed. There really is no good reason for him to hide this mission’s information from Kakashi, a point the bijuu had repeatedly told him. In fact, they had all turned on him last night and argued in favor of Kakashi, saying he would probably make this mission a lot easier. Saiken had been particularly frustrated with Nise’s stubbornness, saying it wasn’t like Kakashi wouldn’t eventually figure the mission out since he was _literally on the mission with him_. But old habits die hard and Nise finds it difficult to freely give up any kind of information. The fact that he finds it difficult to even meet Kakashi’s eye doesn’t help the matter. But perhaps he could listen to the bijuu and let Kakashi in.

“This mission was approved and commended by the Hokage. Any questions that you have may be directed towards her. Otherwise, you will fall in line and do as you are told. You have only yourself to blame for taking an unspecified mission. I have no obligation to satisfy your curiosity,” Nise says instead.

The night echoes in silence and he wants to melt into the ground and disappear.

“Ah, so the Hokage didn’t assign this mission. She only approved it. This mission is of your own design, no?”

Nise doesn’t have to look at him to see the eye smile. He internally berates himself for even opening his mouth in the first place. Talking to Kakashi was like maneuvering a minefield while blindfolded. What little fight Nise has left in him disappears and he’s intensely grateful that it does. “We can talk in circles all night or you can just ask me what you want to know,” he says.

“Oh? I thought that I was being pretty clear. You’re the one that’s redirecting. And very poorly at that.”

The annoyance returns with a vengeance but before he can say anything Kakashi waves a careless hand.

“Maa maa, no harm meant,” he says, as if Nise hadn’t just been deliberately rude to him.

Nise leans back on his hands and tries not to stare. The Kakashi he remembers was a suspicious bastard and would have never let a potential threat to his students slide. He had expected the stalking but he’s honestly surprised he hasn’t been tied to a tree and interrogated yet. Instead, here he is waving Nise’s bad attitude off like it was of little consequence. Something in his stomach turns as he realizes that he might have never really known Kakashi, that he had only known him when Kakashi was playing the part of sensei or battle partner. Deep down he knows that if he brushes this forgiveness off he’ll have lost any potential for trust. And that same spot deep inside him is desperately begging for more company.

Tsunade was great and all, but there were certain things that she didn’t like to talk about and prefered to ignore. Nise didn’t want to have to do this alone; he _shouldn’t_ have to do this alone. And _Oh_.

The convoluted feelings he gets whenever he looks at Kakashi are suddenly painfully simple. He’s furious at his Kakashi for sending him back and it's hard to not transpose that anger onto this Kakashi. He hates his Kakashi for forcing him to live, for dying without him. The betrayal of it all burns and makers his throat feel too tight.

But there’s no such hate for the Kakashi in front of him, who has never harmed him. And, irrationally, he wants this Kakashi to just trust him without any explanation. The caution in Kakashi’s eye hurts.

Still, it’s suddenly easier to swallow those feelings of anger and, for the first time, he can look Kakashi in the eye. Besides, with Kakashi, the more he knows the more he will be able to protect himself.

The only one who will be hurt will be himself. He takes a deep breath. “I’m something of a bijuu expert.”

Kakashi doesn’t say anything. His single eye boring into him.

“Over the years I’ve personally handled a few of the bijuu and managed to build a… repertoire with them. As such, I am privy to a few tips in how to handle them. I intend to find the Kyuubi and talk with him in order to better the relationship between him and his...Naruto.”

“So your mission is the Kyuubi; not Naruto.”

Nise gives a half smile. “One in the same I suppose.”

Kakashi stares at him and while Nise can now hold his gaze, it’s not for long. He looks away after a few moments. He braces himself for the flurry of questions that Kakashi is bound to have.

“Your knowledge of the bijuus is unique. If word were to reach other villages that you can influence bijuu, a hefty price would be placed on your head. If I were Hokage-sama, I would classify that information.”

Nise gives a half hearted shrug. He has no intention of letting any but a select few know the extent of his abilities.

Kakashi tilts his head. “As you are so familiar with bijuu, you no doubt are aware of the Ichibi’s location.”

Nise hesitates for a moment. While he wants to share his burden with Kakashi, it’s still hard to reveal his intentions. “Yes, young Gaara. A peculiar case even among jinchuuriki, I believe he will benefit from my help. When I am finished with Naruto I am going to Suna.”

“And Hokage-sama approved of this. Helping Suna’s jinchuuriki?”

Nise can’t help the smile that crosses his face. It wasn’t his fault that Tsunade hadn’t asked for more details when he had asked for this mission. She had been content with just ‘providing extra security measures to ensure that the bijuus won’t fall into the wrong hands.’ “Hokage-sama is a very busy person and forgetful in her old age. Perhaps she forgot to ask about the finer points of the mission.”

Kakashi raises an eyebrow. “That’s a very fine line you’re walking,” he says lightly.

“I like to think of it as fostering foreign relations. Anyway, we have a long way to go and we could both use the rest,” Nise says standing up and brushing off the dirt from his pants.

“As you no doubt know, Naruto is traveling with one of the Great Sannin. I heard that the two of you are close.”

Nise stares at the him for a moment and doesn’t know what to make of the look in Kakashi’s eye. It doesn't look like suspicion, but it’s too intense to be mere curiosity. Nise is just counting his lucky stars that, for some reason, Kakashi is going along with all this. “You’re awfully chatty tonight,” he says.

When Kakashi doesn’t say anything else Nise turns to go to his tent and Kakashi doesn’t try to stop him.

* * *

Nise only vaguely recalls where he and Jiraiya had been at this point in time. He’s pretty sure they had been somewhere in the outskirts of The Land of Earth, maybe near Iwa, but he’s definitely not willing to place any bets on it. And Kurama was no help, saying something along the lines of ‘Human boarders have no meaning to me. You expect me to keep up with who has arbitrarily claimed what?’ When Shukaku accused him of just not remembering either it had taken a few hours for the yelling in his head to calm down.

As he and Kakashi run through the rocky outplains he hopes that something will catch his eye almost as much as he hopes Kakashi won’t realize that he has no idea where he’s going. He almost wishes Kakashi would put his dog mask back on, at least then his shameless stares wouldn’t be as obvious.

Two days later and he’s surprised that Kakashi hasn’t asked any more questions. He just silently follows, only making small, meaningless, talk when they stop to rest. But it’s been helping Nise to slowly become more comfortable around him. Though he suspects it’s mostly one-sided.

They’re walking through a small town in the center of The Land of Earth, as far from the outskirts as they can get, when a sign catches Nise’s eye. Poorly painted, the sign reads ‘CatEye’ in dark red paint that looks too much like dried blood.

Ah, Nise thinks as he stares at the sign, Now that’s familiar.

“Going into a brothel in Konoha ANBU gear but without masks? Interesting,” Kakashi says, his voice unassuming.

Nise blushes and it’s a pleasant surprise that little things like this still have the ability to embarrass him. And now that he stops to think about it, since coming back he’s felt more than he has in years. Seeing the village whole again, taking down the bijuu’s gate, playing with Tsunade; it’s all somehow, without him noticing, torn down the barriers he erected after Gaara’s death. “It’s also a hotel and bar,” he mumbles. “Come on.”

As soon as they walk through the doors, the memories come rushing back to Nise. They had spent a few months here, longer than any other place, and it had been the last time Nise had really had days at a time where he could just relax and be a kid.

A pretty older woman comes up to them. “How can I help you gentleman?” she asks with a kind smile.

“Just two bottles of sake.” Kakashi says, taking the initiative before Nise can. “We’re just waiting for someone, thanks.” He eye smiles at her.

“I see, anyone I would know?” she asks, her eyes just a shade too sharp.

“No,” he says cheerfully and starts to walk over to a corner table, Nise awkwardly rushing to keep up.

The woman gives a vague nod and walks away over to the bar to get their drinks. Nise and Kakashi sit across from each other in silence and it's only after the woman has placed their drinks on the table and returned to the bar that Nise glances at Kakashi.

He looks as unbothered as ever. As if he wan’t sitting in the middle of a bar/brothel/hotel in Iwa’s lands with a near-stranger with no idea why. His long, gloved fingers wrap around the sake bottle and he gracefully fills Nise’s cup, then his own. He raises his drink in mock salute and downs it in one gulp.

Nise stares, fascinated as always, at how he doesn’t get so much of a glimpse of Kakashi’s face. His eyes trail down to where his Adam’s apple bobs, clearly visible despite being covered.

“Aren’t you going to ask me any more questions?” Nise finally cracks.

Kakashi looks at him with that damn eye smile. “I’m so glad you asked, Nise-san,” he says.

Nise stares and internally berates himself. Of course Kakashi was curious. He’s known the man long enough to know he prefers to watch and wait his opponents out. Nise’s eye twitches.

“It’s ready enough information that Naruto is traveling with Jiraiya. And it doesn’t take a genius to figure out why we’re looking in a brothel for him. But there are brothels everywhere. What begs to be asked is how do you know that they are here in Iwa? Jiraiya purposely didn’t tell anyone where they were going, I doubt he even really knew himself. Yet we’ve been wandering around Iwa for the past two days and the second you saw this place you didn’t hesitate to enter. You know they’re here. How?”

Kakashi’s still smiling and Nise dispairs as his feelings which he thought he had sorted out turn into a mess once more. “Jiraiya is easy to predict when you get to know him?” Nise says lamely.

A disbelieving grey eye stares at him.

“I can feel the Kyuubi’s chakra and I just followed it?” He tries. And Oh, now that’s an idea.

 _Kurama, can you do that?_ he asks. Kurama is suspiciously quiet as roars of laughter echo in his head.

Kakashi looks vaguely disappointed in him but doesn’t question him any further. Nise should be relieved that he doesn’t call him out on his blatant lie, but as Kakashi pours himself another drink he can’t help but wish he would push a little harder.

Nise isn’t sure how long they sit there for. It’s probably only a few minutes but with sitting so close to Kakashi it feels like an eternity. Nise is _not_ staring at Kakashi’s hands, wrapped around his cup, when someone pulls up a chair and sits down between them.

“Tsunade-hime said nothing about you coming Kakashi.”

Nise turns to look at the familiar voice and the expected wave of grief doesn’t come. Instead, all Nise feels is joy at the sight of his perverted mentor.

Kakashi gives a smile and a wave. “Last minute change, Jiraiya-sama.”

Jiraiya gives a gruff humph and turns to look at Nise. “So,” he drawls, looking him up and down. Nise feels a chill of nervousness go down his spine at the sudden intense scrutinization. “Nise.”

“Yes,” he says with a nod of his head.

“I find it hard to believe, even after checking the scrolls. But then again, my life has never exactly been normal.”

Nise looks over and the sight of the white haired man makes him smile despite his nervousness. “You only have yourself to blame for that, _Ero-sennin_ ,” he says, unable to keep his affection from seeping through.

Jiraiya’s purses his lips for a moment and then bursts out laughing. He grabs Nise into a hug and proceeds to squeeze him within an inch of his life.

“Ah, let me go!” Nise yells out, laughing and lightly hitting Jiraiya’s chest in protest.

“Tch, brat, look at you! You grew up all handsome. Ah, what a lady killer you probably are.”

“Ero-sennin!” he yells and Jiraiya reluctantly releases him, but not before ruffling his hair.

“I must admit,” Nise says quieter, “I wasn’t sure that you would— I know Baa-chan told you, but— I’m just glad—”

“As if I wouldn’t recognize that cheek anywhere. How could I reject my precious student?”

A throat clears behind them and Nise tenses; he had forgotten about Kakashi for a moment.

“We’ll talk later,” Jiraiya says, ruffling Nise’s hair. “I hear you have some urgent business with little Naruto-chan?”

“Naruto isn’t little,” Nise scolds.

Jiraiya ignores him and nods his head towards the door. “Go on, he should be training in the woods.”

“Geez, you shouldn’t just leave him like that. Do you know how many times I got lost looking for you?” Nise grumbles as he stands up to leave. He raises an eyebrow when Jiraiya doesn’t get up as well.

“Get. I want to have a word with Kakashi-kun. We’ll be right behind you.”

Nise glares at him, trying to silently convey that he shouldn’t say anything he’s not supposed to, but heads off into the woods to find his younger self.

* * *

As Nise walks out the door, Kakashi is still processing the fact that Nise was Jiraiya’s student.

“Kakashi,” a large hand claps him on his back. “I see the brat dragged you into this mess.”

“I volunteered,” he says distractedly, trying to piece everything together. Nise’s supposedly been on a mission for thirteen years. He would have been too young for training before his mission. And while the story was that Jiraiya had been keeping tabs on Nise the whole time, it was obvious that the two hadn’t seen each other in a long time. He tries to form a timeline, to make the pieces fit.

“Hey, kid.”

Kakashi grunts and looks up.

“You’ve got his back right?” Jiraiya asks, his tone too light.

Kakashi slowly nods. Maybe in the beginning he had his doubts, but he’s been traveling with the man for four days. The wrongness was still there but the easy silence that flowed between them had him second-guessing himself. Sure, there had been a few awkward moments, but Kakashi had found a sort of cathartic peace in running beside the man which he hoped wasn’t one-sided. He’s starting to think that maybe the _wrongness_ isn’t necessarily a bad thing.

Jiraiya pats his back again. “You’ve got good instincts, kid. Trust them and stop thinking so much. Now come on. If we take much longer Nise’s gonna think I’m telling you his secrets and I’d rather not be yelled at.”

Kakashi follows him as he leads the way out of the brothel and into the woods. Probably the only wooded area in the entirety of Iwa.

They’ve only been walking for a few minutes when a frustrated yell echoes from somewhere up ahead. Kakashi hides a smile; it’s been too quiet the last few months.

They step into a clearing to see a panting Naruto lying on his back in the grass. Nise is nowhere to be seen and Kakashi abruptly realizes that he let the man of his sight without a second thought.

Naruto jumps up and points an accusing finger at Jiraiya. “Ero-sennin! Stop ditching me! I know you went to the br-- Kakashi-sensei?! What are you doing here?”

Jiraiya hits the back of his head. "Where are your manners brat!?”

“Ahhh! Now my stomach _and_ my head hurt!”

Kakashi puts his hands in his pockets and leans against a tree. “Naruto. There’s someone that wants to meet you, he’s here to help.”

“Help? With what? I don't need anyone's help but Ero-sennin’s! Ah! And yours too Kakashi-sensei! Oh, Baa-chan helped too. Now that I think about it..." he rambles.

Kakashi now knows two people who call the Sannin such things. It’s important but he doesn’t know why. Doesn’t know where that bit of information goes in the schema he’s been slowly constructing in his head.

Jiraiya looks on fondly. “Quit your rambling brat. Nise-chan is around here somewhere. I don’t know why he’s hiding.”

Naruto looks at them with wide eyes. “Is _that_ what that is?” he whispers.

Kakashi frowns at that and him and Jiraiya take an uncertain step forwards.

“You said your stomach hurt,” Jiraiya says slowly. “When did that start?”

“That’s a person?” Naruto asks, ignoring him.

His face is slowly losing color and Kakashi searches around them but doesn’t sense anything. Where the hell was Nise?

Naruto suddenly grabs his stomach. “Stop it!” he cries out.

“Naruto!” Jiraiya yells as red chakra begins to bubble up from Naruto's skin.

A wave of killing intent pours from Naruto and floods the area. Kakashi makes to jump forward, to stop Naruto before it’s too late, but a hand grabs his shoulder and holds him firmly in place.

“I’m sorry about this,” Nise says, “I tried to approach them slowly but he’s more sensitive than I remember. It’s best if you let me handle this.”

“This wasn’t exactly how I imagined this happening Nise-chan,” Jiraiya says, his voice tense. He hasn’t moved from his spot, has made no move to help Naruto.

“If it makes you feel any better neither did I,” Nise says with a strained smile as he slowly steps towards Naruto who is now cloaked in one tail. “I had forgotten how angry he could get.”

Kakashi glances at Jiraiya, hoping for some kind of explanation or some hint of what to do, but Jiraiya is resolutely staring forwards.

Naruto growls at Nise and another bubbling red tail bursts forth.

“Enough,” Nise says, his voice calm but stern. “You’re hurting Naruto.”

Naruto shrieks in outrage.

“If you stopped acting like a spoiled brat for a minute and let me speak then you would know, you stupid fuzz ball,” Nise snaps.

Kakashi doesn’t know what being a bijuu expert entails, but insulting a tailed beast doesn’t seem like it would be the best course of action. In fact, as Nise continues to approach a two-tailed Naruto without hesitation, Kakashi is seriously starting to believe Nise is just crazy. That he’s never encountered a bijuu before and is just pulling one over them all. He’s just about to say something when Naruto takes a step back and hisses, as if he were weary of Nise.

Nise raises his hands in the air and slowly sits down. “I know you’re hurting too. I can help,” he says, his voice soft.

A third tail emerges and Naruto shrieks in fury but Nise doesn’t flinch, even when the newly formed tail whips just centimeters from his face.

“Kurama,” he says, his voice painfully soft. So intimate that Kakashi feels like he’s intruding on something. “You know me. Are you really going to let appearances fool you? Look at me, Kurama. Feel me. Feel us.” He holds his right arm out and red chakra bubbles out of his hand, coating his forearm.

Kakashi suddenly, vividly realizes what Tsunade meant when she said he wasn’t qualified for this mission. He adds ‘Nise is a jinchuuriki’ to the puzzle that is Nise and while it answers some questions it only creates more. At least now he has some idea of what the fuuinjutsu on his arms are for. From what little fuuinjutsu he had learned from Minato and Kushina, he can tell they are some sort of massive storage seals, but he hadn’t know what for. Kakashi’s heart races and he wonders if this is the wrongness that he’s been feeling. If it was bijuu chakra all along. He wonders if Nise’s eyes have turned as red as Naruto’s are.

Naruto’s red eyes stare intently at Nise’s arm as one of his chakra tails absorbs the other two till he’s once again one tailed. His eyes look too serious, too old and Kakashi wonders if Naruto is even aware of what is happening anymore.

Nise stands up and slowly approaches a silent Naruto. “We’re not too sure what will happen either,” he says with a small chuckle. “But we are hoping to talk to you anyway.”

“What aren’t you too sure about?” Jiraiya asks, his eyes narrowed.

“If someone will die if we all enter the same seal,” Nise says without turning around. “Only one way to find out.”

Jiraiya takes a step forward, his brows furrowed in anger, as Nise places a hand on Naruto's stomach and another on his forehead. “Now wait just a minute!” he says but it’s too late. The jinchuuriki stare at each other, eyes wide and blank as the red, murderous chakra slowly recedes back into their bodies.

Kakashi turns to Jiraiya. He hasn’t been particularly curious about Nise beyond trying to figure out what that wrongness is, but now he can’t help but want to know everything. “Jiraiya sama, I believe I’m due some explanation right this second as to what exactly is happening to my student. Otherwise I’ll be forced to remove Nise-san.”

Jiraiya looks at him in surprise. “Remove him? Why on earth would you do that?”

The world hasn’t been quite right since Nise had shown up, setting off every alarm in Kakashi’s head, but as Jiraiya looks at him like _he_ is the one that’s not quite right Kakashi feels as if the whole world is playing an elaborate prank on him. It has to be some form of karma for all the times he’s purposely annoyed his fellow shinobi by playing dumb.

“I was lead to believe that Nise was to help Naruto and the Kyuubi communicate. Not to—” he pauses, thinking of the name Nise has spoken so gently. “He was clearly only talking to the Kyuubi. He showed no interest in helping Naruto. ‘If someone will die if we all enter the seal?’ Jiraiya-sama, surely this doesn’t sit right with you?” he argues.

Nise’s first words echo in his head, _You’re hurting Naruto,_ and he doesn’t know why he’s fighting this so hard. Why he’s trying to make Nise look in the wrong. He just can’t pinpoint what the wrongness is and it’s screwing with his ability to think straight.

“Don't work yourself up about it Kakashi. I admit, I didn’t expect Naruto to react so poorly to Nise, and I certainly expected Nise to have a better plan than just jumping straight into the seal, but considering everything I should have seen this coming.”

Kakashi didn’t see this coming. And it doesn’t escape his notice that Jiraiya’s non-answer doesn’t offer any kind of explanation.

Jiraiya gives Kakashi a pointed look. “He didn’t learn that recklessness from me. I think it’s best we tell Tsunade-hime this went a little smoother.”

* * *

It’s twenty minutes later when Nise releases his hold on Naruto. Kakashi immediately rushes over to help steady a wobbly Naruto who looks like he’s about to pass out. He stares at Jiraiya’s hand which is similarly steadying Nise.

“If someone will die if we all enter the seal?” Jiraiya says sternly to Nise, as if Kakashi hadn’t brought up that same point.

“Oh yeah. It was only one possibility and everyone is still in one piece, so really, there was nothing to worry about,” Nise says lightly, blinking rapidly as if to clear his vision. His face seems paler than before.

“Well I don’t know how to change it!” Naruto yells.

Kakashi looks down in surprise, only to see his former student’s face screwed up in irritation.

“If you liked it so much over there then why didn’t you just stay! I didn’t ask you to come over— It’s the same thing! You’re here right? No?” His eyebrows furrow in confusion. “How can you be in two places at once? That doesn’t make any— What does my height have to do with anything!” Naruto yells. “Stop laughing!”

“Naruto,” Nise says. Kakashi's eye darts over at the tone. It’s the same soft tone he used when speaking to the Kyuubi. “You can just think and Kurama will hear you.” He gives a wicked smile. “And he’s intentionally trying to rile you up. If you really want to get back at him just ignore him. He hates it.”

Naruto's face scrunches up in concentration for a moment and then a grin splits across his face. “Oh, he really does hate it!” He throws his head back and a loud laugh fills the air. “He’s not so bad, thanks— uh, what’s your name again?”

Nise laughs and it reminds Kakashi of that same carefree laugh he heard a week ago when Nise was running from Tsunade. His face still looks a shade too pale though.

“Nise Uzumaki, but you can call me Nii-san.”

Even though he saw it coming, guessed it since he first laid eyes on that red hair and felt those immense chakra reserves, Kakashi's heart still stops for a beat. Another puzzle piece that doesn’t fit. He really isn’t qualified to be here.

* * *

The woman finishes her shift at the bar and starts to walk home but something makes her turn off the path and head into the mountains. She walks and walks until she reaches a cave. She goes inside and her hands form symbols she’s never performed before and then she waits. Five hours later and she hasn’t moved a muscle.

A crow caws in the distance.

 _What did you see?_ A voice says in her head.

“Two men came looking for Jiraiya-sama and his charge. One of them was the CopyCat Ninja. I didn’t recognize his companion but Jiraiya-sama seemed to be well acquainted with him. I believe he called him his former student.”

_What did they want?_

“They didn't say, at least not near me. All I could make out was that the man I didn’t recognize was going to help the boy better control something.”

 _You did well. Go home._ Two red eyes, tomoe spinning, are suddenly in front of her. _Forget._

The woman wakes up four hours later in her bed and can’t remember anything from the past month.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you all for the comments! I’m thrilled that there are people who enjoy reading this as much as I enjoy writing it!
> 
> Ichibi- Shukaku  
> Nibi- Matatabi  
> Sanbi- Isobu  
> Yonbi- Son Gokuu  
> Gobi- Kokuou  
> Rokubi- Saiken  
> Nanabi- Choumei  
> Hachibi- Gyuuki  
> Kyuubi- Kurama


	6. Ties That Bind

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So as I was trying to find a place to end this chapter I realized that I have no idea how long a chapter should be?? Anyways, I went from having an entire chapter being one scene to having like ten scenes in one chapter, lol. But I hope that you all enjoy this chapter! And thanks for all the reviews!!  
> As always, this is only vaguely proof read so please forgive any grammatical/spelling errors.

Despite their rocky introduction and much to Kakashi’s dismay, Naruto immediately takes a liking to Nise. They spend the next three days whispering together like a pair of thieves, running off at random times to do what Nise called “Family Bonding Time”.

And Kakashi isn’t sure how he feels about how easily Naruto accepts his cousin into his life. Though Naruto is no longer the lonely kid Kakashi first met all those months ago, he knows the boy still craves a family. Kakashi wants so badly to be happy for his student, but his senses are still going haywire around Nise so it’s difficult to feel anything other than frustration. He had hoped that learning Nise was a jinchuuriki would have settled the feeling of _wrongness_ but it hasn’t.

In the hours that they’re not together, Nise is glued to Jiraiya’s side. Kakashi’s certain that neither of them slept that first night, locked in Jiraiya’s rooms talking about who knows what. When they had emerged the next morning, what little tenseness Kakashi had noticed from their first reunion had disappeared. In the hours where Naruto was off training, they spread paper and ink over the kitchen table in their rented rooms and spent hours drawing seals and arguing theory.

Nise is obviously comfortable being with Jiraiya and Naruto. He jokes with them and seems so happy around them that it’s hard to reconcile him with the quiet, serious man he’s been traveling with. In the days Kakashi had spent following Nise around Konoha he had seen his carefree demeanor with Tsunade, how he had always greeted Genma with a smile, how he had been downright playful with the ANBU. But after traveling with him he had concluded that it had been nothing but a persona, an exception rather than the rule. Now, however, seeing the reemergence of his carefree attitude, Kakashi is starting to believe that _he_ is the exception, that Nise is a naturally cheery guy who just doesn’t like him. The fact that Nise hasn’t said more than a handful of words to Kakashi the whole three days only reinforces this. He starts to second guess that sense of easy peace he had been feeling when traveling with the man.

He had stuck around Nise the first two days hoping that, in this more relaxed state, the man would let something slip. But Nise avoided him like the plague and it was slowly grating on his nerves.

It all comes to a head on the third night when Kakashi, fed up with it all, ‘accidentally’ stumbles upon Nise and Jiraiya talking in the kitchen, heads bent over what looks like a half a dozen seals.

Nise head shoots over to look at him and he immediately stops talking. Kakashi stares at him and tries not to let his frustration show. Apparently, their trust is one-sided.

Jiraiya hits Nise upside the head. “You keep saying you want to tell us together and here I am thinking Kakashi is the one avoiding you but it’s actually you? Why did you bring him if you’re so reluctant to share information with him? I thought you liked him?”

“Of course I like him!” Nise says, indigent. At Jiraiya’s leering look Nise yelps and waves his hands in the air. He looks wide-eyed at Kakashi. “Don’t misunderstand! He’s talking about something different! I don’t like you! I mean I do like you! But not in the way you’re thinking! And I’m not avoiding you! I just— Well, I mean—”

Something settles in Kakashi’s chest at Nise’s blushing face and his frustration evaporates as if it had never been there. “Maa, is that why you’ve been avoiding me Nise-chan? You can tell me if you have a crush on me,” he teases.

Nise’s face turns impossibly more red, clashing terribly with his hair. “Shut up you pervert! You were the one who stalked me for two days straight!”

Kakashi doesn’t have the decency to feel embarrassed about being called out on his behavior. He bends forward and puts on a fake hurt face. “I just wanted to get to know my cute kouhai, but you made it so hard to track you. Were you playing hard to get?”

Jiraiya bursts out laughing and Kakashi is suddenly aware of how close their faces are. He pulls back and casually leans against the counter. “It’s okay Nise-chan. I won’t tell anyone about your crush on me.”

Nise screams in frustration and Kakashi can’t help but join Jiraiya in laughing at the embarrassed man.

Jiraiya pulls out a chair and Kakashi takes the hint, joining them at the table. Now that he has a closer look at the seals on the table, he notices they kind of look like the ones inked on Nise’s arms.

“Come on brat. I’ve been patient but you’re just being stubborn now. Either tell us both like you said you wanted to or just tell me; make up your mind,” Jiraiya says.

Nise crosses his arms over his chest. “Fine!” he pouts. He looks over at Kakashi, his eyes serious. “How much do you know about the Akatsuki?”

Kakashi leans back in his chair. “Akatsuki is the organization that Jiraiya-sama left the village to investigate. Their members are all missing-nin. I believe Orochimaru is, or was, a member. Itachi as well.”

Jiraiya frowns, his earlier jovial attitude gone. “There are seven member that I can confirm right now, but there’s probably more. Each of them are powerful in their own right. Their current leader is a man called Pain. He doesn’t run ops with them, but orders them from their base which is rumored to be in Ame. We don’t know much about them other than that their end goal is to collect all the bijuu.”

Nise nods. “Pain is nothing but a puppet. The real leader is a man who calls himself Tobi.”

“I’ve never heard of such a guy.”

“He’s not an official member, at least not yet. The other Akatsuki members aren’t aware of him, it’s only Pain and—” he pauses for a moment and bites his lip. He looks at Jiraiya. “Pain’s right hand man is a woman called Konan.”

Jiraiya flinches back in shock. “Konan? As in—  Are you certain? What on earth is she— Where are Yahiko and Nagato?”

Just like downstairs in the bar, when they first met up, Kakashi is feeling distinctly left out. The names sound vaguely familiar and he has a fuzzy recollection of a much younger Jiraiya telling him about three orphans.

“Nagato is Pain. Yahiko died years ago.”

Jiraiya slumps back in his chair. “Yahiko’s dead?” he whispers.

Nise stretches an awkward hand out and squeezes Jiraiya’s shoulder. “Nagato and Konan are lost right now, Tobi has blinded them but I know that they can be helped. I need you to talk to them, try to get them to turn on Tobi. Without them, Akatsuki won’t be able to seal the bijuu.”

Jiraiya’s eyes harden. “Of course,” he says. “Tell me everything about this Tobi.”

Hesitation returns to Nise’s eyes and he looks down.

“Tell me what I need to know then,” Jiraiya says, easily conceding.

Nise looks gratefully at Jiraiya and Kakashi is struck with the realization that maybe it’s not that Nise is intentionally hiding things from them, but that, for some reason, he just can’t tell them.

“Tobi is an Uchiha. He has awakened his mangekyo sharingan which allows him to perform a space-time ninjutsu called Kamui.”

Kakashi leans forward at that but Nise is resolutely not looking at him.

“It’s similar to yours, Kakashi-san, except that he can only do it short-ranged, when he is touching the object. But he can also perform it on himself and is able to make himself intangible. It’s a damn tricky ninjutsu but it has a weakness. He’s not able to make himself intangible and warp himself away at the same time. Still, it’s best if we avoid him for now. You should only approach Nagato and Konan when you’re certain he isn’t there.”

Kakashi’s heart stops for a moment and his covered eye starts itching so bad that he has to fight down the urge to rub at it. He has taken painful steps over the years to ensure that there are _very_ few people in the world who know about his Kamui. In fact, he can count on one hand how many people know about it any none of them are in this room. He glances at Jiraiya but he’s just slowly nodding, listening intently.

“While he calls himself Tobi to most people, to some he calls himself Madara Uchiha. But—” he raises a hand when Jiraiya opens his mouth, “But this isn’t true. He is just another Uchiha.”

Jiraiya scratches at his chin. “That’s a lot of information to take in Nise-chan,” he says.

Nise takes off the white armour on his right arm, pushes down his sleeve and then takes that off. Kakashi stares at the exposed arm; the seal that are always visible on his exposed upper arms continue down the entirety of his arm and over the back of his hand. Nise weaves a few hand signs and pulls a scroll out from the seal on the back of his right hand.

“I’ve written down everything you need to know about Nagato and Konan’s techniques.” He hands the scroll to Jiraiya but when Jiraiya takes it he holds on tight. “I know you love them but they are not the kids you remember. You’re one of the only people who they might listen to, but they’re not going to let you get close to them without a fight. Please be careful sensei or they _will_ kill you.”

Jiraiya takes the scroll and tucks it inside his vest. “Seems you’ve prepared for almost everything Nise-chan. Anything else you want to tell me to do?”

Nise gives a lopsided grin. “Well, there is one more thing I want to ask of you. How well do you know the Raikage and his brother?”

Kakashi sits quietly and listens as Nise strongly suggests, “You don’t _have to_ but I _highly recommend it_ ”, that Naruto go to Kumo and receive training from the Hachibi and his jinchuuriki. He’s just explaining how gentle and kind the Hachibi actually is, much to Jiraiya and Kakashi’s incredulity, when a sweaty and grumpy Naruto comes bursting through the door.

“Nii-san! He’s being mean again! Make him stop! I can’t concentrate on training when he keeps saying stupid stuff!”

Nise laughs and goes over to ruffle Naruto’s hair. Naruto swats his hand away but he isn’t fooling anyone with the pleased smile on his face.

“He’s _your_ friend Naruto. You can handle him.”

“We’re not friends!”

“Naruto-chan,” Jiraiya interrupts. “How do you feel about going to Kumo when you’ve finished your training here?”

* * *

Kakashi is sitting on the roof of the brothel that night, reading Icha Icha Paradise even though there’s barely enough light to see anything. He turns a page as someone sits down next to him.

“I didn’t mean to avoid you,” Nise says quietly.

“I know,” he says, even though he really didn’t.

They sit in silence for a while, Kakashi reading his book and Nise staring at the stars.

“I’m leaving tomorrow morning. To Suna. To see Gaara.”

“Okay.”

Nise squirms. “Are you coming?”

“Yes.”

“Right, good. Okay.” Nise stands up. “Um, Ero-sennin says it’s only polite to let them know we’re coming.”

Kakashi doesn’t look up from his book.

“Um, my summons are toads and they’re not that good at the whole delivering messages quickly thing. I heard your summons are good at running long distances?”

Kakashi turns a page and mentally catalogues that Nise can summon toads, though he had already been entertaining the possibility, what with Jiraiya’s obvious trust in the man. But then his frustration from earlier threatens to rear its ugly head at Nise’s questioning tone. Just a few hours ago Nise had been confidently telling Jiraiya what to do. Yet now he seems to be having trouble asking something simple of him. Why was he treating him differently? Does he still not trust him?

It really shouldn’t bother him this much but he can’t stop petty spite from filling his veins. “No doubt from where you heard about my Kamui,” he says, forcing his tone to be unassuming.

Nise’s hurt expression makes him immediately regret his words but he can’t take them back. He really shouldn’t be this worked up. He’s always kept a cool head but everything about the redhead works him up.

He stands up before Nise can respond. “I’ll send Pakkun and Shiba. They’re the fastest. Goodnight.”

* * *

Their first day of traveling is tense and it’s only when he notices that Kakashi isn't staring at him anymore that he realizes just how comfortable they had been around each other those first few days of traveling. Nise knows the awkward atmosphere is his fault but he doesn’t know what he did or how to fix it.

The sun is just starting to set on their first day, Nise still trying to think of how to mend whatever it is that is broken, when he senses they’re being followed. He skids to a halt and looks around but they’re in a rocky mountainous area with a dozen places where their enemies could be hiding.

Kakashi’s back presses against his and he can practically taste the man’s alertness. It’s slightly ridiculous how relieved Nise is at that. Even though he knows Kakashi would never abandon a comrade, an irrational fear of being left alone had started fester in his stomach at Kakashi’s standoffish behavior.

A kunai comes flying at Nise’s head and he knocks it out of the air with his arm guard. His eyes immediately zero in on a large boulder in front of him. Another kunai comes for his neck and he brings his arm back, hand in a claw—

“NO!” Nine voices shout in his head and Nise’s body freezes. He can’t move a muscle. He can’t blink.

He’s suddenly floating underwater, level with Kokuou’s blue eyes. She stares at him. “You need to calm down,” she says.

Adrenaline burns through Nise and his body shakes with the need to eliminate the threat. To get rid of it before it can hurt anyone. He can’t remember the last time he went this long without using his chakra and it’s just begging to be used. It’s been so long since they’ve been this well rested and he can feel the full power of all the bijuu flowing through him, right at his fingertips. All it would take would be a single swipe of his hand and he can eliminate everything. “Let me go,” he says through gritted teeth.

“No,” she says calmly.

“Let me go!” he screams, thrashing around, but it’s useless when he’s suspended like this.

She leans forward and touches her massive forehead to his, just like she does for Shukaku when he becomes too lost in his head. “If we let you go you’ll kill them.”

Something nudges at his leg. “They are just Iwa ANBU. There is no need for such force. Calm down,” Isobu says.

Nise takes a deep breath and tries to center himself. This isn’t like his play-tag sessions with Tsunade; an agreed upon friendly game where neither of them really used much energy and there was no threat. This was an unknown person trying to hurt him. His reflexes had automatically responded to the threat, telling him to fight back. He knows they’re right, that there’s no need to use so much power, but he barely remembers what it’s like to fight against someone that isn’t a monster.

He can’t see the others but he knows they’re there, can feel their chakra. Even though he had just reached for their power minutes ago, had almost shown the world what a ten-tails jinchuuriki can do, they don’t draw back from him. He floats there for a bit and lets their familiar chakra flow over him, calming him. “I’m sorry I yelled at you. I didn’t mean it.”

Kokuou’s clear laugh ripples through the water. “We know. Now go. Your companion is waiting.”

Isobu nudges her head against his stomach, the water disappears and the sun is suddenly shining in his eyes. He blinks and Kakashi is in front of him.

“Oh? You finally decided to join us?” Kakashi asks, casually leaning against a rock.

Nise blinks again and though he can control his body again, his step forward is unsteady. With the adrenaline gone, he’s exhausted, feels like he’s been fighting for days. “What happened?” he asks.

Kakashi raises an eyebrow. “Shouldn’t I be the one asking that?”

“Where are—”

Kakashi points at two unconscious Iwa ANBU tied to a rock.

“Oh.” He cringes. “Sorry, I didn’t mean to...you know, freeze.”

Kakashi too-casually walks towards him. “No need to apologize. They were after me. I’m quite popular in Iwa you know,” he says, his voice light. “Have my own page in their Bingo Book and everything.”

Nise’s whole body aches and Kokuou is still murmuring calming things to him but he’s certain that Kakashi is trying to distract him from something.

“But even with my ANBU mask on they still would have recognized me. Maybe my time in ANBU really is over, I’ve been thinking of quitting soon anyway. You feeling better now?”

“Uh yeah.” He takes a step back as Kakashi gets a little too close. His face flushes for some reason. “I’m fine really. I was just surprised, it’s been—”

Kakashi’s hand darts out and yanks something out of Nise’s left shoulder. He stares in shock as Kakashi raises a questioning eyebrow and casually dangles a bloody kunai in front of his face.

Nise looks down at his shoulder to see blood slowly seeping from a stab wound, trickling down his arm. He hadn’t even noticed it. With his ANBU uniform leaving his shoulders bare, he has a clear view as his skin starts to pull itself back together, steam emitting from the rapidly healing gash. Nise clamps a hand over it, trying to hide it, but it’s too late. There’s no way Kakashi hasn’t noticed.

Kakashi gently pulls Nise’s hand away and runs a finger over the sizzling wound, not seeming to care about the blood he’s getting on his glove. “That’s quite a wound to not realize,” Kakashi says, his voice curious. “Kushina Uzumaki—” he hesitates.

Kakashi is still too close and Nise has never heard him talk about his mother before. He holds his breath, afraid that a single breath will shatter the moment. He can’t look away from where Kakashi’s touching him.

“I remember once when a Kumo ninja broke her leg. It was pretty bad, the bone had broken through the skin and she couldn’t move. I saw her use some of the Kyuubi’s chakra and it healed within a few minutes. Minato-sensei swore me to secrecy, but it’s hard to forget something like that.” His finger pushes hard against the almost healed wound. “I remember it perfectly. I remember how much pain she was in.”

With a sizzle, the wound completely seals. His tan skin looks as good as new; even the inked lines from his seals are perfectly intact.

Kakashi stares at him and Nise can’t think, can’t look away from his grey eye. He doesn’t know what to say. Has no idea what Kakashi is thinking.

Kakashi eye smiles and flicks his shoulder. “Didn’t want to pull it out while you were spaced out,” he says cheerfully. “Come on, we don’t want to be around here when their friends realize they’re missing.”

* * *

They only stop to rest when Shiba and Pakkun return. Gaara had received their message and was willing to meet them but he gave no meeting place, just said that he would be watching out for them.

They find a relatively secure outcropping of rocks and set up the customary traps. In a routine firmly established, it’s Nise’s turn to make their dinner while Kakashi sets up the tents.

Nise is stirring the stew, or what he hopes will turn out as stew, when Kakashi sits down next to him.

“The two tents can combine to make one. It’s more spacious that way. Easier to set up too”

Nise looks up in confusion but Kakashi doesn’t say anything else, just takes over making the stew in an attempt to salvage what grey monstrosity Nise has created. Nise looks behind him and instead of the standard two tents he sees one giant one.

When they finish eating Kakashi heads to his, their, tent with a jovial “Goodnight!”

Nise mediates for two hours, talking to the bijuu and trying to relearn what amount of damage the average ninja can take, before he joins Kakashi in his, their, tent.

And Kakashi was right; combined, there is a lot more room inside than seperate. Nise’s bed roll is already rolled out and he hesitates only for a moment when he sees how close Kakashi has laid it to where he is lying on his side on his own. He doesn’t know what goes through the man’s head but apparently he’s been forgiven for whatever it was that he messed up earlier.

Nise lies down on his bedroll and he’s so close to Kakashi that they might as well be sharing one. This close up Kakashi looks asleep, but that doesn’t really mean much. He watches the rise and fall of Kakashi’s chest for a bit, the slow and even movements drawing him closer to the edge of sleep. Kakashi still has his mask on and Nise doubts that he’ll ever stop wondering what is underneath it. He turns over so his back is to the man, so he doesn’t have to see his half covered face, and goes to sleep.

* * *

They’ve just passed the border into the Land of Wind when Nise senses Gaara. Nise stumbles at the familiar chakra and would have face planted into the ground if Kakashi hadn’t grabbed at him at the last second.

_Pull yourself together kid,_ Shukaku growls.

Nise takes a deep breath and tries to steady his pounding heart. After seeing Tsunade, he had quickly realized how hard it would be to to see those who he had been close to in his previous life. So during his short stay in Konoha he had gone out of his way to avoid running into any familiar faces. Jiraiya had been unavoidable but it he had been lost so long ago that Nise had long come to terms with his death. And while Kakashi had been unexpected, he had never actually seen the man die and it was almost too easy now to separate his childhood sensei from the maybe-friend that was this Kakashi. But Gaara. Gaara was a fresh, gaping wound.

Nise’s throat feels tight and he takes another deep breath. It smells like metal.

“Not that I’m not flattered, but is this really the time?”

Nise hurriedly takes a step back as he realizes he’s been all but clinging to the front of Kakashi’s flak jacket.

“Ah! Sorry! I just wasn't expecting to feel Gaara all the way out here. He must not want to meet so close to the village...or something...” he trails off awkwardly when he realized Kakashi isn’t paying attention to him.

Instead, he’s staring off towards the horizon, towards Suna. “You can sense him? Or you can sense the Ichibi?”

“One in the same I suppose.”

“That’s the second time you’ve said that,” he comments. He turns to look at him, his eyes guarded. “You didn’t react like this when we were near Naruto.”

Nise doesn’t really know how to answer that non-question.

_Just tell him you’ve got a bro-boner for—_

_Be quiet Shukaku!_ Saiken snaps.

“Yes, well...oh! Gaara’s seal isn’t quite right so the Ichibi’s chakra caught me off guard. It’s a little...rougher than it should be.”

Kakashi doesn’t look like he believes him but he lets his excuse slide.

Sixty meters later and Nise can feel Temari and Kankuro’s chakra signatures as well. From Kakashi’s slowing pace, he must sense them as well.

And even though he thought he was ready for it, the sight of a young Gaara nearly knocks the breath out of him. A lump forms in his throat and he wants nothing more than to hug his brother.

Gaara's eyes are impassive as he steps forward, Temari and Kankuro hanging a few feet behind him. He crosses his arms over his chest and Nise can see the beginnings of the great commander he will hopefully never have to become. “Your message was very vague. You say the Godaime Hokage has sent you, yet you do not come here on official Konoha business,” he says, his voice soft. “What do you want?”

Nise steps forward and bows low. He will do right by Gaara. “The Godaime Hokage has sent me to assist with the Ichibi’s seal, as a gesture of goodwill between our villages and to strength our new alliance.” He straightens up and smiles. “Naruto also sends his regards. He even wrote you a letter.”

Gaara turns to him, eyes sharp and suspicious. “You smell like Shukaku.”

Nise nods and bends down on one knee. He holds out his right hand, palm up, and focuses on letting just Shukaku’s red chakra bubble up and coat his arm.

Temari and Kankuro take a step forward in alarm but Gaara hold out a hand to stop them. He narrows his eyes and the sand shifts restlessly around him. A thin strain of sand sprouts out from the ground and curls around Nise’s outstretched arm but he doesn’t flinch. Gaara’s days of indiscriminate bloodshed are long over.

“It’s...calm,” Gaara says as he takes a step forward, holding out his own hand. A crack appears in his hand and his protective layer of sand breaks off, exposing his real skin. He reaches out and gently lays his hand in Nise’s.

Nise tightly grips Gaara’s pale hand, pulls him closer and places his other hand on Gaara’s stomach, right over where his misshapen seal is.

And then Nise is standing in a red desert. A red moon, so large it takes up half the night sky, shines bright above. Gaara stands at his side, looking around confused.

A terrible roar draws their attention to their right. In the distance, Shukaku screams at the red moon in fury. Chains wrap around his legs and neck, pinning him upright against a giant black stone slab.

Gaara takes a step back but Nise puts a comforting hand on his shoulder. “Look,” he says, pointing to the chains. Even at this distance the spikes protruding from them are visible, their tips coated in dark red. “He’s in pain.”

Gaara stares at Shukaku, the red light of the moon making his green eyes look yellow, but doesn’t say anything.

“Come on,” Nise says.

Together, they take a step forward and are suddenly standing right in front of Shukaku.

“What are you?!” the one-tailed demon screams in rage. “Where did you get my chakra?” He thrashes against his chains, causing the spikes to sink deeper into his fur. “I’ll kill you! I’ll rip you—”

“Shukaku!” Nise yells but he’s either unheard or ignored.

Shukaku thrashes harder and blood starts to pour from where the spikes pierce his skin.

Nise turns to Gaara. “It will be easier to fix your seal if both of you are cooperating. I am here to help _both_ of you. Will you make him stop hurting himself?” he asks.

Gaara slowly nods and, without giving any visible cue, the red sand around them starts to rise up and surround Shukaku.

Shukaku thrashes harder. “I am the one who gave you those powers! You think you can use them against me! You think you can control _me_!”

“You’re hurting yourself,” Gaara says softly.

Shukaku laughs as the chains loosen enough to allow the red sand to force him down onto his belly.

Nise walks up to Shukaku’s massive head and can’t help but tsk. “Even Kurama wasn’t this difficult,” he says as he gathers Shukaku’s chakra in his hand. Shukaku’s eyes widen as Nise places it on his forehead. “This belongs to you,” he says and pushes the memories into its original body.

_the brat thinks he can be kaze- he’s being ripped from- it’s dark and quie- the Uchiha commands him to- someone keeps draining his- he’s being pulled agai- Kokuou is here and- the brat falls and doesn’t get u- he’s so tired- the kid’s soul is bein-_

Nise pulls his hand back and eyes the dazed one-tailed demon wearily. He’s not saying anything but with Shukaku that could mean anything; his moods were volatile even on a good day. For now at least, he seems calm.

Shukaku turns his massive head to look at Gaara. “You can let me go now brat,” he says.

Gaara turns to looks at Nise, uncertainty in his eyes, and Nise nods. With his future-self’s memories, Shukaku should be more stable.

The red sand slowly falls away and Shukaku growls when the chains pull him back upright against the stone slab. “Do something about these stupid chains. They hurt like a bitch.”

Nise smiles. “Are you going to behave? You own Gaara an apology.”

Shukaku’s lip curls up in disgust. “Don’t think you can order me around. I’m not like the others.”

“I know,” he says and he really does. Shukaku had never developed his empathy for humans to the extent that the others had.

Shukaku growls. “The brat has never bothered to apologize to me,” he says.

Nise rolls his eyes. “That doesn’t even make any sense,” he mumbles. He turns to Gaara when he feels coarse sand wrapping around his ankle.

“What did you do?” Gaara asks. “I can not allow you to set him free.”

Nise clasps his hand on his shoulder. “Gaara. This is Shukaku. I helped him calm down a bit but I still need to fix his seal.” He gives his best smile at Gaara’s suspicious look. “You and Shukaku are partners. You guys will accomplish great things together, but it’s going to take a lot of patience and effort. Are you willing to work for it?”

Gaara stares at Shukaku, distrust clear in his eyes, but he nods.

“Excellent!” Nise says and backs up. He crouches down and slams his hand down on the ground and the red sand blows away to reveal a black stone ground with jagged carvings in it. The sloppy and harsh seal is horrific to Nise’s eyes. “Come here,” he says to Gaara. “You should learn this.”

* * *

Kakashi vaguely wishes that Nise would have given everyone a heads up before diving into another seal. It’s not a problem, but it’s incredibly inconvenient trying to read his beloved Icha Icha Paradise with Gaara’s siblings sending him murderous glares.

“Are you still reading that damn book?” Temari yells at him. Her knuckles white from where she’s gripping her fan so hard.

If Kakashi was a nicer person he might feel a little bad for her. It had only been last week when he himself had been pretty upset at Nise making Naruto go practically comatose. He turns a page. He could probably give them some kind of explanation but he would rather Nise face the angry siblings. Maybe then he would learn to explain himself before acting.

It’s been thirty minutes since the two jinchuuriki started their weird stare off and Nise still hasn’t released his hold on Gaara. Temari and Kankuro had tried to get to their brother at first, but anytime they came within a few feet of the frozen jinchuuriki a wall of sand would rise and block their path. They had eventually settled for throwing insults at Kakashi.

And Kakashi supposes he has to give credit where credit is due. At least they were both smart enough to know that an attack on him would mean an attack on Konoha. It was poorly kept news that their brother was aiming for the Kazekage seat and damaging Suna’s delicate alliance with Konoha was a guaranteed way to lose favor.

“Tell your man to release Gaara this instant!” Kankuro yells.

Kakashi ignores them, blushes, and turns another page.

Ten minutes later and Kakashi is just starting to think he might have to intervene when Nise finally releases Gaara.

Gaara’s face is paler than normal and Temari and Kankuro immediately rush to his side; this time no wall of sand stops them.

“See, I told you it was nothing to worry about. Nise-chan just forgets to explain things before he does them,” Kakashi says. He’s already by Nise’s side, steadying the swaying man with an arm around his waist.

“Temari, Kankuro. I am alright. I am...better,” Gaara says, his voice rougher than normal. He gives a small smile. “Please, Nise-sensei, Kakashi-san, let Suna accommodate you for a few nights. We have much to discuss.”

Gaara turns, his siblings hovering at his side, and starts the long run to Sun. He seems to be relatively steady on his feet but Kakashi suspects his sand armour is supporting him more than it normally does. Kakashi keeps a steadying hand on the small of Nise’s back, bites his cheek to hold back commenting on Nise being called sensei, and follows.

* * *

The walk through Suna to their temporary lodgings is tense. Wary eyes follow them and there is a tenseness in the air that doesn’t belong in a hidden village. Gaara, Temari and Kankuro walk with their heads high, giving no indication that they notice anything is amiss. Kakashi walks with his nose buried in Icha Icha Paradise and pretends he doesn’t notice anything either.

“These will be your rooms for the duration of your stay. I apologize that they are not—”

Nise claps a hand on Gaara’s shoulder, not seeming to notice the grains of sand that trickle over his hand. “They’re just fine Gaara. We gave such short notice that it’s more than we expected.”

Gaara nods and the sand siblings have only just left the room after agreeing to meet them for dinner in a few hours when Nise turns to him with serious eyes. “What’s with the tense atmosphere?”

“Well, Suna is pretty vulnerable right now. What with not having a Kazekage,” he says, refusing to point out the obvious. Nise has to know how Suna fears Gaara.

“Gaara is aiming to be the next Kazekage.”

Kakashi drops his pack on the sole bed in the middle of the room and sighs at the obvious statement. “Yes.”

“You were close with Sandaime. You know the political side of the office.”

Kakashi feels a headache coming on so suddenly that he doesn’t even really care how Nise knows that. “No.”

Nise takes an eager step forward. “Kakashi-san, just think about it! Suna’s Council is going to give the seat to him anyway; there’s no way they’re letting his bloodline go, but you can bet they’re going to try to turn him into a figure head. Gaara will do great things for the village! And with Shuk— the Ichibi working with him he’ll be unstoppable. But he’s so much more that just a chakra powerhouse. He cares about this village and he can do so much more if the Council isn’t holding him back. You can teach him!”

Kakashi runs a hand through his hair. “You knew I would come on this mission with you,” he accuses. “You planned this from the start.”

“What? No! I thought I was doing this solo! I didn’t even know you before this!”

That’s one hell of a lie, Kakashi thinks but lets it slide. “So it just so happens that you brought along an easily recognizable and well-known Konoha shinobi. One who, if seen parading around the village with Gaara, makes it seems like Konoha supports his candidacy. Which would show that he also has powerful connections to Konoha, who they just so happen to have a new and unsteady alliance with. Which would also endure him with the Council. And—” he pauses at the look in Nise’s eye, as if he’s never considered what he’s saying as a possibility. He points an accusing finger at the redhead. “You didn’t plan any of this. You’re making this up as you go!”

Nise blinks and his cheeks tinge pink. “No!” he weakly protests.

Kakashi sits down on the bed and rubs his temples. “What exactly is it that you want to accomplish here?”

Nise leans against the dresser and bites his lip. “I want to train Gaara and the Ichibi.”

“So this is more than just fixing his seal. You didn’t stay to train Naruto and the Kyuubi. You told him to go to Kumo for that.”’

“Gaara really is a special case. He was a jinchuuriki before he was even born so his chakra is so mixed up with the Ichibi’s that he’s always been able to use the Ichibi’s chakra. Killer B and the Hachibi can teach how to accept one’s self and how to share chakra but that’s not what they need. They’ve always been in resonance with one another. What they need is trust and someone who can understand them.”

Kakashi sees the fire in Nise’s eyes, the iron faith he has in Gaara and the Ichibi. “And you understand,” he says quietly.

“Yes,” Nise says firmly. “Gaara doesn’t really sleep so I can train him at night and during the day you can...do whatever it is that you were talking about. I was just going to say teach him like law stuff, but what you were saying sounded better. Please, Kakashi-san.”

Kakashi sighs and flops backwards onto the bed. “I suppose I can do a few things,” he mumbles.

He feels Nise sit down on the bed next to him and hides a smile. “Oh and Nise-chan. We’ve slept together enough that you can just call me Kakashi.”

Nise’s subsequent blush and screeching is worth it.

* * *

Gaara kneels in the sand, breathing harshly. His whole body aches and he just wants to lie down and sleep. He spits a mouthful of blood out and wipes his lips with the back of his hand

_Come on brat, I’m literally offering you all my chakra, free of charge. This idiot is just gonna keep beating you into the ground without me. You haven’t even touched him yet. Let me fight!_

_I don’t trust you,_  Gaara thinks.

_The whole point of this is for us to work together! You’re embarrassing me!_

“Get up,” Nise says and Shukaku’s annoyed growl echoes in his head.

As soon as the sun had set, Nise had dragged him out, miles from the village, saying that it was time to test the teamwork him and Shukaku had been working on for the past two days. Just a small spar, he had said, just to gauge their current abilities. And while he had warned Gaara that he was bad at holding back, Gaara couldn’t help but feel like he wasn’t even trying to hold back.

“Up, Gaara. You can do this.”

Gaara looks up and his new sensei cuts a truly frightening sight. His once tan skin is so pale that the moonlight reflects off of him, making him appear to glow white, which only emphasizes his ink black eyes. He holds one of those damn black balls in his hands, tossing it up and down.

Gaara slowly gets up, ignoring his protesting joints, and drags his sand up with him. He thrusts his hands out but the sand has barely moved when Nise is gone.

_Use my chakra!_ Shukaku roars.

And Nise is suddenly standing in front of him, swinging a black rod right at Gaara’s side.

The sand rushes to his defense but its too little too late. The rod hits his left side and he hears something crack before he’s sent flying through the air. Sand rises up to catch him as gently as it can but even just breathing hurts. The sand cradles him as it sets him back on the ground and Gaara is certain he’s broken something.

“You’re not applying anything you’ve learned. Are you even talking to one another? You are a team, you two are stronger together. You’ll never be able to dodge me on your own,” Nise says, his voice just this side of taunting.

Gaara grits his teeth and the taste of iron is back in his mouth. _How do I know I can trust you_ , he thinks to Shukaku.

_Trust that I want to beat this little shit up more than I want to hurt you._

Gaara spits out more blood and shakes his head. He’s heard that excuse before and it’s just not enough. They’ve made extraordinary strides in the last days, a few months ago he never would have imagined that he would be able to hold a civil conversation with Shukaku, but it’s hard to forget a lifetime of torment.

The black rod comes shooting towards his head but he can’t move a muscle, can’t defend himself. The rod is going to pierce through his skull.

_Trust that he will be able to stop us,_ Shukaku says and Gaara is suddenly reminded of Naruto.

Naruto, an untrained jinchuuriki, had been able to stop them. Surely Nise, who obviously had complete control, would be able to stop them too.

He feels a wave of energy flow through him and then there’s a tan tail with blue markings holding the black rod, inches from his face. Gaara stares wide eyed and maniacal laughter echoes in his head.

More energy rushes through him and with a pleasant ache, strength returns to his limbs. Something settles in his stomach and everything seems to sharpen into focus.

_Let’s show this pipsqueak what we can do,_ Shukaku growls.

Gaara stands up and his heart skips a beat as he realizes how high up he is, how he’s no longer in human form.

_Calm down brat. You’re still awake aren’t you?_

He pushes the panic in his chest down as he realizes that he is indeed awake. With barely a thought, he swings his tail and tosses the rod aside. He’s awake and in full control.

“Oh?” Nise says, holding his hand out as the black rod, now a ball again, returns to him. He looks so small from up here. “I wasn’t expecting this for another week.”

He’s standing in the red desert again, except he’s also standing in front of Nise. Shukaku sits behind him, explaining something to him but he can also hear Nise encouraging him to attack.

Gaara opens his mouth, Shukaku’s mouth, and a mass of black chakra forms. A Beast Ball, Shukaku had called it. Gaara fires it at Nise.

Nise throws his head back and laughs. “Excellent job Gaara!” he yells as he brings his own hand up and forms a Beast Ball of his own. He throws it and it collides with Gaara’s in an explosion of light and energy.

Sand whirls around them, forming a storm, but he feels connected to the sand in a way he never has before. It’s everywhere, in the ground, in the air, and even though he shouldn’t be able to see through it, he can easily sense where Nise is standing, can sense everything. He calls to the sand around Nise’s feet and it easily bends to his will. Nise is looking towards the explosion and Gaara beckons the sand to crawls up his legs—

Nise throws a hand out and a gust of wind clears the sand storm. Nise takes a step forward, breaking free from where the sand has wrapped around his legs as if it weren’t even there. He smiles, pale and ominous as ever as his nine black orbs float around him. “That was fantastic! I knew this would be easier for you! Afterall, you—”

The fine balance him and Shukaku have been holding slips and his energy leaves him in a rush. Abruptly, he’s close to the ground again, falling forwards but something catches him before he can hit the ground.

“Easy there,” Nise says, and Gaara wearily opens his eyes to see he’s slumped over Nise’s back. His skin is tan and he's in his Konoha ANBU uniform once again. “You’re not used to handling that much chakra at once. How about we call it a night?”

Gaara’s limbs feel like lead and Shukaku is being quiet so he nods.

Nise shifts him so he’s more centered onto his back, hooks his arms under his knees and lifts him up. “You did really well, Gaara. I’m very proud of you.”

Gaara rest his cheek against Nise’s shoulder and wonders at the warmth blossoming in his chest. It should be weird having his sensei who he only met a few days ago carrying him like this, but it’s somehow not. No one has touched him so casually like this before. Except for Naruto.

The warmth in his chest spreads. Naruto had been strong enough to defeat him, to save him. He glances at his sensei’s side profile and thinks of his white skin. Nise would make it so _he_ would be strong enough to save others.

“Why?” he mumbles as Nise starts the long trek back to the village. “Why are you helping us? Why do you care?”

Gaara is almost asleep when Nise finally replies. “Because my cousin would be devastated if something were to happen to you. Naruto loves you very much, you know.”

Gaara thinks about that for a while. Thinks about Naruto’s letter Nise had given him that first night. It had been long, nonsensical, disorderly and wonderful. He still hasn’t written a reply, hasn’t found the right words to answer the question ‘How have you been?’

“We are...friends,” he says.

Nise’s back shakes as he laughs. “Yes. Yes you are. I would like to be your friend too. If you’ll let me.”

Garra frowns. “You are my sensei,” he says.

Nise laughs so hard he almost drops him.

* * *

In the five days that they have been here, Nise has only seen Kakashi for a handful of hours. When Nise returns to their room to go to bed Kakashi is usually still sleeping, not due to get up and start his day for another hour or so. And it’s the same when Kakashi returns to go to bed at night, just hours before Nise is due to wake up.

Nise thinks that it should be awkward, sharing a bed with someone he has _technically_ just met, but he’s already used to sleeping at Kakashi’s side. In fact, he’s almost certain that he actually falls asleep faster with Kakashi’s comforting presence near him. Kakashi doesn’t comment on their sleeping arrangements so Nise can only hope that he feels somewhat the same.

They might not have talked much to each other in the past few days, the most they really say is a mumbled ‘good morning’ or ‘good night’, but that doesn’t mean he doesn’t know what the other man has been up to. Gaara can be quite chatty when he’s comfortable around someone and he spends their downtime between teamwork lessons and spars telling Nise all about what Kakashi has been doing and teaching him.

He tells him about how a council members had even approached him and told him what a great job he was doing on solidifying Suna’s relationship with Konoha after ‘that terrible misunderstanding’. Gaara had even regaled to him an amusing tale about how Kakashi had tried to teach Temari about inter-village processes which had ended with an angry Temari chasing the Copy Ninja through the streets of Suna.

Still, Nise thinks that the most amazing thing is how Kakashi takes it all in stride. After that first evening here, Kakashi hadn’t asked any more question, seeming content to follow Nise’s lead. It’s on their fifth night in Suna, when Nise is getting up to start his night, that he’s struck dumb with a realization.

He’s looking down at Kakashi’s sleeping face and it’s so relaxed and peaceful that it is almost weird. It’s only now that he’s looking at Kakashi’s relaxed form that he realizes that there has been a deliberate distance about Kakashi the entire time. Its sudden disappearance is jolting and Nise can’t really recall a time when Kakashi has ever been this unguarded before. Nise isn’t sure what he did, but it seems like Kakashi has finally accepted him. He knows the other Kakashi had accepted him as an equal but it had never been like this.

He doesn’t want to abuse the trust Kakashi is showing him and it gives him the final push he needs to be as honest as he can with the man. So that night Nise spars with Gaara for a few hours longer than usual and returns to their room two hours later than he normally would.

He awkwardly knocks on their door and Kakashi opens it, his eye tired and curious. Nise doesn’t blame his confusion as neither of them have ever knocked before entering before, but Kakashi lets him in without any questions.

Nise can’t imagine what it’s like for Kakashi, but he has never truly felt uncomfortable around the other man. Sure, in the beginning he had been confused for a while but he had never felt uneasy. He wonders what it must be like for Kakashi to just have someone barge into his life like he has.

“I intend to do this with all the bijuu and jinchuuriki,” he says quietly.

Kakashi doesn’t say anything, just leans against the dresser and folds his arms. His silver hair is a mess and his right eye looks droopier than usual but he is awake and that relaxed air is still there. It’s the final confirmation Nise needs.

“After this, I’m headed to Kiri. The Sanbi is there. She’s normally pretty gentle but her jinchuuriki is being manipulated. They both need help or they’ll both be killed. I won’t deny them what’s within my abilities.”

Kakashi tilts his head to the side. “You genuinely love the bijuu don’t you?” he asks.

Nise frowns at the off hand comment but continues. “After that I’m headed to Iwa, then Taki, then Kumo. What I’m trying to say is that I’m not returning to Konoha anytime soon.”

“But it’s not just the bijuu. You care for the people they’re in as well.” Kakashi takes a step towards Nise and this isn’t how he imagined this conversation going.

“Kakashi. You don’t have to stick around and watch me for months. You can—”

“I like watching you.”

The room is suddenly too small and Kakashi is too close. Nise’s stomach clenches and he doesn’t know what to say.

Kakashi reaches out and his hand hovers over the seals on his left shoulder. Right over where the kunai had pierced him. “How many bits of bijuu are trapped within you?”

“They’re not trapped. They can go whenever they want,” Nise says.

His eyes widen at what he’s just revealed but Kakashi doesn’t look surprised, just nods slightly, as if he had expected it. Nise’s stomach turns as he wonders what else the man suspects. How much he’s already guessed.

Kakashi’s finger gently brushes Nise’s shoulder, a mimicry of what he had done a week ago, and Nise shivers. Kakashi isn’t wearing his gloves this time and the difference is electric. “In Iwa, before you froze. Your skin started to turn white. I could feel more than just the chakra of the Kyuubi and Ichibi.” He withdraws his hand but doesn’t make to step away. His grey eye is serious. “The Uzumaki’s were killed for their fuuinjutsu skills. You and Jiraiya are probably the only fuuinjutsu masters left.”

Nise can’t tell what he’s thinking but he’s still too close. “I can teach you.”

Kakashi looks amused. “My sensei already tried. I know more than most, but my talents lie in other places.” He takes a step back and Nise can breathe again.

“At least let me teach you one. If you’re coming with me to Kiri then you should probably know it, just in case,” he says, desperately trying remember what his original plan had been.

Kakashi tilts his head to the side and slowly looks him up and down. “I haven’t made up my mind on a few things yet so I’ll be coming with you to Kiri.”

“Okay,” Nise says, trying not to sound too relieved. He hesitates for a moment. “The seal, it might look familiar. I call it Flying Thunder God: Third Step.” He carefully watches Kakashi’s reaction but his face is neutral and doesn’t give anything away.

“It’s a variation of the Yondaime Hokage’s jutsu. I have a seal here,” he turns around and pulls his hair up, pointing to the seal on the back of his neck, “and when I put a matching one on a person it connects us. But instead of just me being able to teleport to my mark’s location, whoever I mark can also teleport to my location. It also acts as a life sensor, able to tell us when the other is seriously injured.” He drops his hair and turns back around. “It’s incredibly useful during battle and…” he trails off.

For the first time since they’ve been traveling together, Kakashi has his left eye open. Nise stares at the sharingan but Kakashi’s eyes are still looking at his neck even though he can’t possibly see the seal anymore. Kakashi’s eyes slowly travel across his shoulders and stare at his upper arms. He doesn’t say a word and his intense gaze makes Nise acutely aware of just how much skin his uniform hides.

“You’re expecting trouble.” Kakashi says.

“No, but it’s best to be prepared,” Nise says, hoping he doesn’t sound as breathless as he feels.

Kakashi closes his eye and leans against the dresser again. “Tell me about the Sanbi and its jinchuuriki.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Also, I kind of just realized that I can reply to everyone’s comments? I know, I’m kind of slow but technology really isn’t my thing. If you have any questions I’ll definitely respond!


	7. Divergence at Kiri

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> I’m seriously blown away by all the positive feedback that I got last chapter! You’re feedback is really encouraging and don’t worry! I will continue to update as often as I can.  
> This chapter took a little bit longer to post because I’ve just kind of been sitting on it since I’m not really that satisfied with it but I’ve already completely changed it three times and at this point I think I just need to post it so I can move on with the story.  
> As always, please excuse any spelling/grammatical mistakes.

Growing up surrounded by the forest, Kakashi has always felt more comfortable traveling long distances by jumping from tree to tree rather than just by running. So the great trees of The Land of Fire are a welcome sight after weeks of seeing nothing but rock and sand. But more important than his own personal comfort is that their pace drastically picks up as the branches provide better leverage than a flat or mountainous terrain ever could.

A day into traveling through the Land of Fire and they stop for the night to set up camp. It’s a routine that Kakashi has done his entire life but for some reason that he can’t quite put his finger on, it feels different with Nise. Almost domestic; or what he thinks domestic might feel like.

Without a word, Nise goes to set up their tent and Kakashi goes to start making their food for the night. And it’s a relief to be able to make a fire to cook their food over instead of having to make do with sandwiches or cold stew. Iwa was openly hostile so making a fire there would have been nothing but a beacon for unwanted attention and even though Suna was now friendly territory, they hadn’t made any fires while traveling through it. And since there’s nothing like the sense of security that being in one’s own land brings, Kakashi makes sure to make their fire larger than normal.

When they’ve finished eating they sit across the fire from one another in a comfortable silence, the noise of the surrounding wildlife providing a calming backdrop.

Or calming for him at least, Kakashi thinks as he glances over at Nise. The man has been nervously shifting all night and Kakashi has to fight back a smile at how obvious the redhead can be sometimes. In some ways, Nise is painfully easy to read.

He figures he’s let the man squirm long enough. If he lets Nise stew in his thoughts for any longer then he’ll be proving Genma and Asuma right when they say he’s a bastard. Kakashi likes to think he walks the line between enervating and asshole quite well. “Something on your mind?” he asks.

“Ah, well. It’s stupid. It’s nothing really,” Nise says, not meeting his eyes.

“You’re worried about Tobi showing up,” Kakashi says and Nise looks up in surprise. “It’s obvious you’re wary of the man. He must be pretty formidable if he’s got you squirming at just the thought of him.”

Nise gives a self-deprecating smile and looks down at his clasped hands in his lap. “He could destroy the world,” he says softly.

Kakashi leans back and thinks that over. Sure, the man's time-space jutsu sounded like a pain in the ass, but he wouldn’t call it world-ending. And Tobi might be pulling Akatsuki’s strings but, at the end of the day, they were just missing-nin. Missing-nin who would no doubt not be amused to learn they were being manipulated. And with Nise’s unrelenting determination to protect the bijuu, he doubted Tobi would ever even get his hands on them all. “That’s not an easy feat,” he says casually.

Nise lets out a harsh laugh. “But he could do it.”

“And how would he? Destroy the world, I mean.”

Nise stares at him but he doesn't say anything, his attention focused elsewhere; seeing something Kakashi can’t. The light of the fire reflects off his eyes, giving them an inhuman glow.

“There’s something other than the bijuu then?” Kakashi asks, cautiously throwing out some of his vague suspicions. He might have accepted that Nise can’t tell him everything, but he still wants to know.

“...Yes,” Nise says slowly, reluctantly, but Kakashi doesn’t begrudge him for it. He waits; Nise will tell him what he can.

“He’s not Madara Uchiha,” Nise says, frowning. “But...he can bring him back. Reanimate him somehow. I don’t really know how though.” He shakes his head in frustration. “I don’t know if the bijuus give him the ability to do it, or if he already has the ability and is just biding his time, or if it’s actually someone else who does it for him, or—” he runs his hands over his face. “Together with— together they can definitely destroy the world.”

Kakashi can practically taste the anxiety rolling off the redhead. “Then it’s not Tobi you’re worried about. It’s what him and his friends will do.”

“Well, I wouldn’t call them fri—”

“If you ask me, Tobi is the one who should be worried about you. Akatsuki doesn’t know about him so he’s on his own right now. But you’re not. You have Tsunade-sama who is a Sannin and commands the strongest hidden village in the Elemental Countries. You have Jiraiya-sama who is as good as an entire village on his own. And once Gaara becomes Kazekage and settles in I imagine he will happily aid you. He doesn’t hide his admiration for you very well.”

Nise’s shoulders relax and he gives a small smile. “And what about the infamous CopyCat Ninja? Will he be by my side?”

Kakashi pulls out his book and hides behind it. “I’m not sure you can afford him.”

Nise’s bright laugh chases away the chill of the night more effectively than the fire ever could.

Kakashi lowers his book and rubs at the back of his neck where his seal is now inked on his skin. It was odd, knowing that they would be able to be at each other’s side in a second if they were hurt. And he would have left it at that, but when Nise had placed the seal on him a few nights ago Nise had quietly offered to add in an extra design: “I can make it so we can call for each other even when we aren’t injured. If we ever get separated, one of us can always call for the other.”

Kakashi had nodded and Nise had added a few more strokes. He still isn’t sure why he had agreed so readily.

But no matter what happened tomorrow they would be fine. They’ve made dozens of plans and prepared for dozens of different outcomes. Even if Tobi did show up in Kiri, they would be alright.

Still, with an ability like Tobi’s, his Kamui would have probably been helpful. Nise hadn’t said anything more about his Kamui, but Kakashi knew they would have been able to make more effective plans if he was able to reliable use it. He had never bothered to train and develop the technique before, using it just once was exhausting, but maybe he should start to. Any little bit he could contribute to help prevent the destruction of the world, to ease Nise’s worry, would be worth it.

* * *

Three days later and they’ve set up camp a few miles from the front gates of Kiri. Even though it was still early in the afternoon they had agreed that it was best to get as much rest as they could before entering the hidden village, just in case. While Nise seemed unconcerned with meeting with the Mizukage and more worried about possibly running into Tobi, Kakashi was more weary about how the infamous Mizukage would receive them. After all, Nise said he wasn’t sure if Kiri had gained the nickname The Bloody Mist before or after Tobi had put the jinchuuriki under a genjutsu. And Kakashi had a gut feeling that they wouldn’t be able to leave Kiri without a fight.

But even though Kakashi knows he should be resting, he lies on his back, eyes closed, and can’t find sleep. There’s just too much going around his head. And even though he’s already decided he won’t question Nise anymore, he can’t just ignore a puzzle.

The familial love for Jiraiya and Tsunade, the undeniable Uzumaki heritage, the bijuu chakra in his seals, the thirteen year mission, knowing about his Kamui, the ability to calm bijuu, the intimate knowledge of the Akatsuki, the affection for Suna’s jinchuuriki… there were just so many puzzle pieces and while he knows they all go together he can’t seem to get them to fit properly. He’s missing the piece that connects everything. He can almost see it, the bigger picture, but every time he grabs for it, it slips through his fingers.

Kakashi thinks of the distant look on Nise’s face when he talked about Tobi and thinks that maybe he already has all the pieces he needs. Maybe he just needs to look at them differently. Flip them over. Look underneath.

He didn’t care about all of this a few weeks ago. He had trusted Tsunade enough to trust Nise from the beginning so he hadn’t been concerned with figuring out every single truth about the man, had only been concerned with figuring out what the _wrongness_ was. But now he wants to know everything, wants to know everything about Nise. And he, irrationally, wants Nise to trust him without explanation. Wants Nise to tell him everything.

It shouldn’t be this frustrating. It’s not personal. Nise has some sort of bond with Tsunade and Jiraiya that can’t be faked so it makes sense that they would know everything about him. There’s no reason for Nise to just spill everything about himself to him. Nise’s words from so long ago resonate in his head: _I have no obligation to satisfy your curiosity._ It stings that it's true.

But there is something else that’s keeping him awake: it feels like every sense he has is tuned towards the man lying next to him. He is just so _aware_ of Nise.

They’ve been sleeping next to each other in some form or another for a while now, long enough for Kakashi to confidently say that Nise wasn’t a peaceful sleeper by any stretch of the imagination. He was constantly tossing and turning throughout the night but his gentle snoring and solid presence had always been a pleasant background. But for the past week it’s like he’s hyperaware of just how much space separates them at night. Conscious of every breath the redhead takes.

Kakashi pauses at that thought. He hasn’t heard Nise move in a while and he doesn’t hear any snoring. It’s too quiet.

Something gently touches his covered cheek and it takes everything he has to not flinch away. It slowly traces along his jawline and it’s only when it works it way up to gently touch the bottom part of the scar over his left eye that he realizes it’s a finger.

The finger traces along the edge of his mask and that’s a little too much for him so his hand shoots out and grabs a wrist. He opens his right eye to see Nise leaning over him, wide-eyed and horrified. For a frozen moment, they stare at each other, neither of them say anything.

Kakashi’s eyes travel down to take in Nise’s bare arm, his wrist still held firmly in his grip. Without his ANBU arm guards and gloves on, the seals on his forearm that are normally hidden are on display. He’s only seen glimpses of them before and he’s never seen them this close before. Now that he knows what they’re sealing they almost don’t look complex enough. Kakashi opens his left eye.

“I—”

Kakashi ignores Nise and shifts his grip, slowly running two fingers over the ink on the back of Nise’s hand. The contrast of their skin tones is strangely appealing but he ignores it in favor of the mesmerizing seals. He carefully traces the intricate designs and follows them as they go up Nise’s wrist and onto his forearm. He has no idea what he’s doing or why he’s doing it but the impressive blush on Nise’s face is encouraging.

Kakashi pauses at the crease of Nise’s elbow, the skin impossibly soft. It’s minute, but there’s a small jagged line there. A broken seal. Kakashi traces it over and over.

“There are no cages or chains in me,” Nise whispers.

Kakashi doesn’t say anything, just continues to trace the seals, up the rest of Nise’s arm and then down his other arm. Nise doesn’t move the entire time, barely breathes, and Kakashi suddenly wishes that Nise wasn’t still wearing his undershirt. The seals probably continue onto his chest and Kakashi desperately wants to see them as well. Wants to memorize them.

He traces the ink on Nise’s left shoulder for the third time, right where the kunai had gone through, and withdraws his hand. He closes his left eye. “Go to bed,” he says.

Nise nods frantically and all but dives under his blanket.

* * *

Sneaking into Kiri is almost too easy given their extreme and paranoid isolationism policies. And once inside, the villagers were more than helpful in pointing them towards their Kage. Nise hadn’t been willing to question their good luck, so he and Kakashi had followed an overly friendly blacksmith as he happily guided them straight to the Mizukage’s tower.

Yagura had been alone in his office, innocuously sitting at his desk and filling out paperwork.

The jinchuuriki had been hostile at first and had almost called for his ANBU guard but once Nise had held out his arm, covered in Isobu’s chakra, Yagura had become more receptive to talking to them, even if he did still seem wary.

But it seemed that their luck was finite and reaching the Mizukage so easily had apparently used it all up. Obito, on the other hand, had an abundance of luck; putting him in the right place at the right time. Yagura had been reaching out to take Nise’s hand when Obito suddenly warped into the room.

Isobu jerks her chakra back into Nise so harshly that his chakra coils burn. She buries herself so deep into his seal that Nise feels nauseous at her disappearance.

Obito stares at them, one sharingan eye shining brightly and appearing as nonplussed as they are, before throwing a fire jutsu at them.

Nise knocks the Mizukage’s desk on its side and ducks behind it with Kakashi. He curses as it looks like Obito isn’t even going to try to pretend to be Tobi. Apparently he isn’t thrilled about finding them talking to one of his puppets.

“Remember, just keep him distracted! I’ll call for you when I’m done,” Nise whispers to Kakashi before they have to jump away from each other, the desk giving way to Obito’s flames.

“I’ll take care of Kakashi. You kill the redhead,” Obito says calmly.

Nise curses again as Yagura, cloaked in two tails, jumps at him, lost to Obito’s genjutsu. Nise braces himself and, careful to not use any chakra, catches one of Yagura's outstretched arms by the forearm. He sees the look of shock on Yagura’s face for only a second before he heaves the jinchuuriki over his head and out through the window.

Nise’s hand is burnt to a crisp, white bone poking through, but it’s already starting to heal as he leaps out the window after them.

 _Stop healing me!_ he yells in his head. _Obito will feel your chakra!_

Nise jumps from rooftop to rooftop and heads towards the screaming civilians and rising dust cloud that indicate where Yagura has landed. He jumps down onto the streets to see a furious Yagura digging themselves out of the side of a building, three tails wildly waving. Civilians run fleeing around them and he sees two Iwa ANBU running towards their Kage but he ignores them as Yagura screams in outrage and props their jaw open. Chakra starts to gather in front of their mouth and condenses into a ball.

Nise doesn’t hesitate as he rushes straight at them. He knows exactly how long it takes to perform that technique in that state of mind and even running without the help of chakra he knows he’ll make it in time. Just as the Beast Ball is fully formed, he grabs Yagura with his good hand by one of their flailing tails and flings them further away.

He runs after them, wincing as they land in an explosion, and hopes that this is far enough. Hopes that Kakashi is distracting enough that Obito won’t be able to feel it when he uses his chakra.

They’re waiting for him when he gets there and they’re furious. Their chakra cloak is gone and they’ve transformed into a solid mass of red and black chakra, three tails whipping behind them. The infamous mist that saturates Kiri only makes them look that much more ominous.

Yagura runs straight towards him and it takes all of Nise’s willpower to not defend himself. He can feel the bijuu working hard inside of him to choke his chakra coils, trying to restrain his chakra flow. Their chakra wants to automatically start healing him and they _can’t_ have Obito notice his chakra. Revealing his abilities to Obito was the worst possible scenario. He would most likely warp away to analyze and prepare a counterattack and Nise couldn’t afford for him to alter his plans into something he couldn’t predict. Nise would be forced to kill him right then and there but there was no telling what back up plans the Uchiha had tucked away.

It’s easy to ignore the pain in his hand as gathers a small amount of his chakra into it. He grits his teeth from the effort it takes to pull just his chakra and none of the bijuu’s. Their chakras are so mixed together that he can barely tell whose is whose anymore and his poor chakra control makes it hard for him to separate them. The bijuu choking his coils only makes it that much harder.

Yagura slams into Nise, claws digging into his chest, and the force of the impact is too much, forcing the air out of Nise’s lungs and knocking him over onto his back. Nise’s flesh easily gives way and as Yagura puts their full weight down on him, he feels a few bones in his chest crack. Nise lifts a shaky hand up and touches Yagura’s side with his fingers, pushing his chakra into them and disrupting both Yagura and Isobu’s chakra flows.

With nothing protecting his chest but his ANBU flak jacket, the claws hurt like a bitch and Nise’s vision starts to go black as they yank their claws out of his chest.

 _When it is safe we will heal you,_ Gyuuki assures and Nise has only a moment to think about how inconvenient it is to not be able to heal oneself before he passes out. 

* * *

Kakashi just barely blocks Tobi’s fist when he feels a tug in the back of his head. He jumps back and relief floods through him at Nise’s call. If anything, Nise had been underselling just how much of a pain in the ass Tobi’s ability was. Kakashi scoffs as he remembers Nise’s insistent preaching of ‘Don’t attack, just distract’. It’s all he can do just to not get himself killed.

Tobi jumps back into the far right corner of the room and the explosives Kakashi had set up a few minutes ago when he was thrown into that corner go off. As Tobi warps away as to avoid the explosion and the crumbling wall, Kakashi both hopes and dreads that he will appear in the destroyed office again. If Tobi decides to go after Nise and the Mizukage they’re screwed.

There’s a ripple in the air to his right and Kakashi throws a handful of shuriken as Tobi’s body starts to form.

Kakashi thanks anything that is listening that they had planned for Tobi, that Nise had gone over the man’s abilities in exhaustive detail. Just in case.

The shuriken have just passed harmlessly through Tobi’s head when his shadow clone charges from the other side with a Chidori. His clone’s jutsu and arm phase through the masked man as well, but Kakashi had been hoping for that. His shadow clone keeps going forward and then stops so he’s standing in Tobi. With Tobi forced to stay intangible, he can’t follow him. Kakashi quickly throws up a earth wall to hide what he’s doing and activates the seal on the back of his neck.

His stomach clenches in protest and he feels like he’s going to throw up but the sensation disappears as quickly as it comes and then he’s standing on the outskirts of Kiri. He takes an unsteady step forward, rapidly blinks to clear his hazy vision, and looks around for Nise; they need to get out of here as soon as possible. He pauses when he realizes what he’s looking at and his stomach protests again as he realizes the redhead hadn’t intentionally called for him.

Nise lies on the ground on his back, his ANBU flak jacket shredded with the grey material stained red. The Mizukage is crouched over him with his hands pressing down on Nise’s chest, trying to staunch the blood flow. There’s no steam coming from the wounds. Nise isn’t healing.

Kakashi tenses and prepares to attack, to get the Mizukage _away_ , but before he can do anything Yagura stands up and backs away from Nise, holding his blood-drenched hands out in a sign of peace.

“My mind is my own now,” he says, his voice business-like and seemingly unbothered by the events that have transpired in the last ten minutes. “There is a small fishing town four miles west from here. Go to the inn and tell the owner, _only_ the owner, that I have sent you and he will take you to a safe house. Wait for me there. Madara doesn’t know about it, he doesn’t care about such small towns so you will be safe there.” He looks down at Nise with a small frown. “A jinchuuriki will heal from this.”

Nise is bleeding out and Kakashi doesn’t have time to ask any questions so he grits his teeth, gives a jerky nod and goes to Nise’s side, careful to keep Yagura within his sight. He bends down and carefully picks Nise up, momentarily surprised by how light the man is. He can run faster carrying Nise on his back but Kakashi’s afraid if he moves him around too much he’ll bleed out faster so he settles for carrying Nise in his arms.

“Kakashi-san. Kiri is indebted to you two for releasing us from Madara’s genjutsu. Isobu and I are curious as to what else Nise-san has to offer us,” Yagura says. He inclines his head and runs off back into his village without a backwards glance.

Kakashi runs west and doesn’t look down at Nise’s pale face. He pretends he can’t feel Nise’s warm blood soaking through the front of his flak jacket.

* * *

Nise wakes up surrounded by warmth and to the smell of bacon frying. He groans and rolls over, pulling the blankets over his head, and debates if getting out of bed is worth it.

“I don’t remember the plan where you let the Mizukage almost kill you.”

Nise pulls the blankets down and opens his eyes, squinting at the brightness of the room. An unimpressed Kakashi sits in a chair next to his bed, eyebrow hauntingly raised. Nise groans and sits up, rubbing his bare chest. “Yes, well, it certainly wasn’t Plan A.”

“No. But Tobi appearing was Plans B-2 through C-3 I believe? We would have had a plan for this eventually. Plan H-5 maybe?”

Nise snorts and catches the undershirt Kakashi throws at him, quickly pulling it on. It doesn’t escape his notice that Kakashi isn’t wearing a flak jacket anymore and that he doesn’t offer him one. They had only brought extra undershirts. “Yeah, no. I can only remember so many plans,” he says and rubs his chest again. He’s already forgotten the pain Isobu’s claws had caused.

Kakashi makes a noncommittal hum. “You were only out for a few hours. The Kazekage is already here and he refuses to talk unless it’s to the both of us. He’s quite paranoid,” Kakashi says lightly, standing up.

Nise nods. “No use in putting this off then,” he says, getting up as well. He discretely glances around but he doesn’t see any evidence of blood anywhere. He wonders how long Kakashi spent cleaning up.

They head out of the bedroom and into the connecting kitchen where they’re met with an odd sight: the Yondaime Mizukage sitting at the kitchen table, eating bacon and eggs.

Yagura stands up at the sight of them and gives a small bow. “Nise-san, I am pleased to see you have made a full recovery.”

“Mizukage-sama. I hope we didn’t cause too much harm, we had hoped this would go smoother,” Nise says, sitting down across the table from him.

“You have released me from Madara’s thrall. My office can always be repaired and it was of no consequence to pretend for a few hours more,” he says with a dismissive wave of his hand, his voice firm and unrelenting. “My only regret is that I do not believe attacking him would be productive. Now, enough of this small talk. You said you have something for the Sanbi and I?”

“Ah, yes,” Nise says. He wouldn’t call what they were doing small talk but he’s fine with getting straight to business. He’s a little caught off guard by the conflicting vibes he’s getting from Yagura and he’s not too sure how to respond. On one hand, Yagura’s stern eyes and stiff posture don’t invite any friendliness but on the other hand, Nise doesn’t feel any hostility coming from him. Nise wonders how the man managed to somewhat get along with Isobu when she was so sensitive to aloofness.

Nonetheless, Nise holds out his arm, letting Isobu’s chakra bubble forth and he can’t help but smile at the sensation. The bijuu’s chakra should never be hidden away within him, it was such an integral part of him now that it just felt right flowing through him.

Without hesitation, Yagura reaches across the table and firmly grabs his hand and then Nise is standing in the streets of an abandoned village. The wind whistles through the empty streets and mist clouds his vision so he can only see a few feet in front of him.

“She’s this way,” Yagura says and then they’re standing in front of a giant hole in the center of the village. “Down there.” Yagura points into the hole.

Nise looks down into the hole but it’s so deep that all he can see is darkness. He hears Isobu’s melancholy roar coming from somewhere deep within it.

“Oh Isobu,” Nise whispers to himself and he hates that he can’t just grab her and get her out of here. But her and Yagura have to work that out for themselves. He hadn’t released Kurama from his cage and he had only taken away the spikes and loosened the chains for Shukaku. All he can do is give the bijuu their future-memories; the rest they would have to work out with their vessel. Nise jumps into the hole.

Less than a minute later and he pulls himself out of Yagura’s seal. They can’t have been in there for longer than a few minutes and he braces himself for the lightheadedness he’s felt the last two times he’s done this but it doesn’t come.

Yagura doesn’t look any worse for ware but he’s staring off into the distance; no doubt talking to Isobu, trying to determine what it was Nise had done to her to make her so much more amiable. “I do not believe it would be wise for me to continue as Mizukage,” Yagura says, looking unbothered by what he’s saying.

Nise waits for Kakashi to speak up and disagree but the man is leaning against the counter, absorbed in reading his stupid orange book and seemingly oblivious to the conversation. And despite the seriousness of the situation, Nise can’t help but be impressed by the sheer apathy such a bold move requires.

“I will have to search for a predecessor who can help reclaim Kiri’s former glory. Till then I believe exile is a fitting punishment for me. I have shown inexcusable weakness by allowing myself to be controlled.”

“There was no way—”

“I do not say this seeking your sympathy, Nise-san.”

Nise nods, then cautiously. “If you would allow me to make a recommendation?”

Yagura raises an eyebrow. “You believe you know Kiri well enough to recommend her a leader?”

“If you would consider Mei Terumi as your successor. I believe she will do well.”

Yagura scrunches up his nose in distaste and it makes him look years younger. “The renegade?” he asks, his voice colored with doubt and it’s a relief to hear something other than his previous monotone.

“She’s looking to change and reform Kiri, to make it so it’s no longer known as The Bloody Mist. Her policies will help Kiri thrive and she has the power to back them up.”

Yagura frowns but slowly nods. “She will have a lot to change and many will not accept her. Kiri has long become used to brutality and they will see her desire for peace as weakness.” Yagura holds up a hand to stop Nise from speaking up. “Still, I have not been deaf to the support she has been gathering in the past months and she has merit in accomplishing even that much. I will speak with her.” He inclines his head to Nise. “It is the least I can do.”

“Where will you go during this self-imposed exile?” Kakashi suddenly asks, not looking up from his book.

Yagura looks down at his empty plate. “Perhaps I will travel. I have never been to another hidden village before and I would like to see how they live.”

“If I may make another suggestion?” Nise asks hesitantly.

Yagura looks up and smirks at him, his mask of indifference long gone. “I dare say you will tell me regardless if I want to hear it.”

Nise rubs the back of his neck. “The Raikage’s brother, B, he and the Hachibi are able to work well together. You and Isobu already have the beginnings of a bond but I believe you could benefit from at least meeting with them. If you ever desire company, they will welcome you with open arms.”

“I will consider,” Yagura says as he stands up, his head held high and looking every bit the Mizukage. “Please, Nise-san, Kakashi-san, stay and rest for as long as you need. Madara will not disturb you here.”

* * *

Nise knows that Kakashi knows that they shouldn’t stay in Kiri for any longer than absolutely necessary. So when Kakashi agrees to spend the night at the safe house and then leave first thing in the morning, Nise is genuinely shocked but he’s not willing to question it since he needs the night to think things over before they move out again. The vague plan that Nise’s been working with up till now isn’t going to cut it anymore.

Because Obito is aware of him now. Maybe not of who he is specifically, or what he can do, but he definitely knows that Konoha is looking into other country’s jinchuuriki and there’s no telling what the Uchiha will do with that knowledge. Nise can’t afford to take his time with visiting all of the jinchuuriki anymore; he needs to pick up the pace.

 _You’re plan leaves much to be desired_ , Saiken says and Nise can practically see him looking down his nose at him.

 _You give him to much credit by calling what he has a plan_ , Kurama says lazily.

 _I’m afraid I have to agree kid_ , Gyuuki says. _You really need to come up with a better plan than “pick up the pace.”_

 _Please be quiet_ , Nise thinks as he enters the bedroom.

The safe house Yagura is letting them stay in is small, only meant to house the Mizukage, and therefore only has one bedroom. However, the living room has a large couch that an adult can easily fit and sleep comfortably on. It’s only when Nise shuts the bedroom door behind him that he realizes that neither of them have made any move to go to the living room.

Kakashi doesn’t even look up at him as he climbs onto the left side of the bed, the side he always sleeps on, and it’s probably his relaxed posture that allows Nise to gather his courage. “I’m going to Iwa alone,” he says.

Kakashi ignores him as he situates himself against the headboard and pulls out Icha Icha Paradise.

“I mean it Kakashi. I need you to do something else for me.”

Kakashi hums but doesn’t look up from his book.

“I need you to watch the Akatsuki’s movements.”

Kakashi blinks and then slowly closes his book and puts it on the bedside table. He folds his hands in his lap and looks at Nise like he’s forcing himself to be patient. “No,” he says deadpanned. “Jiraiya-sama, who is perhaps the greatest tracking and infiltration ninja in the world, has been tracking them for years, ever since Orochimaru’s defection, and even he hasn’t had much success with that. What makes you think I will do any better?”

And Nise can’t really argue when he puts it like that. But it still doesn’t change the fact that he has to know what they’re doing, if Obito is making any changes in their plans. “I need to make sure that they don’t make any moves against the bijuu and jinchuuriki. I need someone to watch them,” he says frustrated. He needs someone on the inside to— He stops that train of thought and the answer is so simple he can’t believe he hasn’t thought of it before now. “Itachi,” he says, ignoring the disgruntled grumbling in his head.

“Itachi? What do you think my wayward subordinate is going to do?”

“Subordinate?” Nise asks, confused.

“Oh,” Kakashi leans forward, a gleam in his eye, “You didn’t know? I was his ANBU captain for a while.”

And Nise didn’t know that. He knew Kakashi had been in ANBU before and that it hadn’t been a particularly good time in his life, but other than that he knows nothing about those years. But he’s already messed so much up already and it’s getting so hard to keep track of what he is and isn’t supposed to know that it feels like he can’t be doing much more damage by saying a few more things. “Itachi can gives us updates.”

Kakashi’s smile falls and his eye turns serious. “You’re going to have to explain a few things there, Nise-chan.”

“If we were to ask it of him, I think that Itachi would be willing to tell us about the Akatsuki’s movements. The Uchiha Massacre wasn’t Itachi’s idea, he was ordered to do it in order to prevent a coup. Danzo is the one that ordered it but the Sandaime knew all about it. Itachi did it to protect Konoha and I know he’ll try to protect it even now. If we reach out to him and tell him what’s going on I’m certain that he will help us.”

Kakashi doesn’t say anything for a long time and Nise feels awkward just standing at the foot of the bed so he climbs under the covers and sits next to Kakashi.

“So Itachi wasn’t responsible for the Uchiha Massacre?” Kakashi finally says.

“Well...no. I mean, yes, he still did it. But he was ordered to. Sandaime was looking for a peaceful resolution but Danzo didn’t think they would find one in time before the coup. I doubt we’ll ever know how it would have turned out if Itachi had waited but, yes, Itachi did kill his clan and I’m pretty sure Tobi had a hand in helping him. I don’t really understand the finer points of it all but I know that Itachi is on Konoha’s side.”

Kakashi pinches the bridge of his nose and looks up. “How do you even know about all of this? Nevermind, don’t answer that,” he says with a sigh, his eyebrows furrowed in consternation.

A silence settles between them and Nise is reluctant to break it; he doesn’t want to keep lying to the man. “So, will you go to him?” he asks and as Kakashi’s silence stretches on a ball of anxiety starts to form in his stomach. “You’ve trusted me about everything so far. Trust me when I say Itachi is on our side,” Nise says. He’s not sure about the relationship between Kakashi and Itachi but he knows Kakashi has the best chance of getting to Itachi.

“You are asking a lot of me.”

“I know.” Nise puts a hand on Kakashi’s clothed cheek and turns his head so that he can look into his grey eye. “Please believe me when I say that I want to tell you everything.”

Kakashi stares at him, his eye searching Nise’s own for something, and their intensity is almost too much.

“I don’t want to have to keep hiding how I know things but I can’t tell you,” Nise says because this moment feels vital. He feels like if he says the wrong thing here he’ll ruin everything.

Kakashi smiles. “You don’t have to,” he says softly.

“But I do, Kakashi. If you knew you—”

“You’re not from here,” Kakashi says.

“Well, no, but—”

“I mean your not from this time.”

Nise pauses and stares wide-eyed at Kakashi; there’s no way he knows.

“It’s one of the only answers that makes sense,” Kakashi says, turning fully to face him. “You’re close with two thirds of the Sannin but it's obvious that you haven’t seen either of them in a long time. Jiraiya was the more obvious; when you first met, he kept double checking with you after everything he said, as if gauging your reaction. He obviously trusts you but he doesn’t really know you. At least not anymore. You had to spend an entire night locked away in a room with him in order for him to truly relax around you. After word spreads about what your doing for the jinchuuriki there will be few who will question the story you three are spinning. But its not completely true is it?”

Kakashi leans forward and they’re so close that Nise can feel the heat radiating off of Kakashi’s body.

“Jiraiya didn’t know you so there is no way you have been keeping in contact with him for thirteen years. But I can’t explain the fact that they trust you. Thirteen years ago the Sannin were in their late 30’s. There’s no way they would have trusted a child. You would have been around nine, maybe ten?”

Kakashi’s hand slowly comes up and tucks a strand of hair behind Nise’s ear, his fingers lingering over his neck and Nise is starting to think that his lungs just don’t want to work whenever Kakashi touches him. When Kakashi gently cups his cheek Nise’s worries that he might actually pass out from lack of oxygen.

“Uzushio was destroyed over thirty years ago,” Kakashi continues, his voice barely more than a whisper. “And while there were those who escaped, Kushina-san was the only Uzumaki. With the regard that you hold Naruto in, something must have prevented you from coming to him sooner. And I doubt a mission, no matter how important, would have kept you from at least watching over him. The only explanation is that you just weren’t here for those thirteen years.”

“But you know too much about the bijuu, about Akatsuki. You just know too much; enough to fill a lifetime. At first I thought it was a mind-transfer jutsu, where you just took the information from other’s mind, but…you’re too sincere to have second hand emotions.” Kakashi gives a smile so sad it makes Nise’s heart ache. “You already know what happens don’t you? You’re not from this time.” Kakashi brings his other hand up and cradles Nise’s face. “I don’t know how Tsunade-sama, Jiraiya-sama, the bijuu or Uzushio fit into it all, I don’t have all the pieces yet, but I think I’m getting close. So you don’t have to tell me anything Nise. I want you to, but you don’t have to. I’ll figure it on my own.”

It should sound like a threat, but Kakashi’s calloused hands are warm against his cheeks and the look in his eye is so unbearably soft and understanding that Nise’s heart feels like it’s in his throat. It feels like Kakashi is the one who is being laid bare, not him. He wants so badly to share his life with someone and he can’t think of anyone better than Kakashi.

Nise brings a hand up and puts it over one of Kakashi’s. He pushes it harder against his cheek and tries to memorize the feeling. “Hurry up then,” he whispers. “I’m tired of being alone.”


	8. The Foregathering

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Well this chapter took a bit longer than expected since it became so long but it's finally done! Enjoy!  
> As always, this was only vaguely proof-read so please excuse any spelling/grammatical mistakes.

They part ways the next morning with nothing more than a simple ‘See you later.’ They set no deadline to complete their tasks by and carefully make no promises that they won’t get hurt.

And despite what he told Nise, Kakashi doesn’t go hunting for Itachi straight away. Nise might know about things that he shouldn’t, but his plans were rather short sighted. Kakashi might not know everything behind what drove Itachi to do what he did, but he knows he can’t approach him empty handed. He’ll have to be pretty damn convincing in order to convince the Uchiha to spy for them.

Kakashi had already formed a plan before he fell asleep the night before so it’s without delay that he heads to Konoha where he has a more-or-less disastrous meeting with Tsunade. Kakashi had quickly discovered that he was under the wrong impression in assuming that she was aware of everything that Nise knew. Learning about Itachi, Danzo and the Sandaime’s actions from Kakashi hadn’t put her in a good mood, especially when he hadn’t been able to give her the details she wanted. Though it had oddly made him feel better that Nise had told him something before Tsunade; even if it was obvious that Nise hadn’t really intended to tell him in the first place.

When he had asked for an official pardon and ninja reinstatement for Itachi, Tsunade’s poor mood had taken a steep turn towards horrible. And while she had gone on a truly impressive rant about how it wasn’t easy without the Council’s approval she had nonetheless procured one for him within a few hours and had guaranteed that Itachi’s name would be cleared and he would be allowed back in Konoha. Though she had still been calling him and Nise some offensive if creative names when he had made his escape out her window.

Kakashi had almost made it to the front gates without running into anyone when Asuma had somehow managed to stumble upon him, coming back through the front gates from who knows where. Asuma pointing an accusing finger at him and yelling “Gai, catch him!” had been enough to have Kakashi fleeing for his life without a backwards glance.

He spends a few days wandering through Kusa but can’t quite find what he’s looking for. He runs through dozens of scenarios in his head of how his confrontation with Itachi might go and he constructs at least half a dozen battle plans in case it comes down to that. On his second day in Kawa, he stumbles upon a small and nondescript hotel that isn’t close to any hidden village that will serve his purposes well.

He puts a genjutsu over his face and goes to the town’s local bar. “Have you heard the rumors?” he says to the bartender. “Madara Uchiha is back!”

Kakashi spends the next week spreading similar rumors around the tiny town and he’s glad that Itachi doesn’t come to him right away. Because as many plans as he’s made he’s still not really sure what he’s going to say to Itachi when he finally sees him.

Kakashi honestly isn’t even certain how he feels about being the one to do this. Because no matter how he’s looked at it over the years, he has always felt a little bit responsible for how Itachi turned out. Itachi had been so young when Kakashi had become his captain so he should have acted as a more caring mentor. He should have at least seen that the teenager was struggling, being pulled apart by family duty and village duty. Kakashi has a lot of failures in his life and Itachi was just one of many.

Kakashi’s out in a field a few miles from his hotel, training with his sharingan and trying to build its endurance, when a boy no older than twelve approaches him from behind. “Hey Mister, are you a real ninja?”

Kakashi grabs one of his kunai, turns around, and throws it at the boy. It lodges itself in the center of the boy’s chest with a dull thunk. The kid stares at him with wide, pain-filled eyes for a second before he explodes into a flurry of crows.

“Maa, Itachi-kun,” Kakashi says lazily. “Why don’t you come out instead of hiding?”

Kakashi turns back around and Itachi is standing in front of him, his sharingan active and glowing. Kakashi makes sure to make a show of looking the Uchiha straight in the eyes. He wants to believe his former subordinate is not a monster. Wants to believe he was backed into an impossible situation and did the best with what he was given. Kakashi trusts Nise, but he selfishly wants this for himself. He wants to be able to have one thing from his past not be a complete disaster.

“I just have a few things to say is all,” Kakashi says, carefully to keep his tone light and unassuming “I would appreciate it if you didn’t put me under a genjutsu while I’m at it. Your last one wasn’t much fun.”

“You have not been subtle in your attempts to draw my attention,” Itachi says, his voice as calm and monotone as it is in Kakashi’s dreams. He doubts he’ll ever forget the horrors of Itachi’s Tsukuyomi.

“Maybe. But it got you here didn’t it?”

“Where is your partner?”

“Ah, Nise-chan left me to go see the Yonbi and the Gobi,” Kakashi says and Itachi’s eyes narrow in suspicion, just as he knew they would. “He’s a jinchuuriki himself you know,” Kakashi continues casually. “But even then he’s absurdly good at talking to the bijuu. He helped Naruto, the future Kazekage and the Mizukage with their relationships with their bijuu.”

Itachi’s eyes pierce into him. “Why are you telling me this?”

“Because you haven’t accounted for him,” he says as he takes a step closer. “No one has. He’s got the Godaime Hokage and Jiraiya-sama taking steps to take down Akatsuki. He himself is carefully preparing to take down the one who calls himself Madara Uchiha.” Itachi gives no reaction at the name and Kakashi takes another step towards him but halts when a crow caws from somewhere behind him. “And he wants to bring you home to Konoha.”

Silence rings through the clearing.

“Konoha is not my home.”

“Yes it is,” Kakashi says softly. “And Tsunade-sama is eagerly awaiting your return.” Well, she might not be eagerly waiting, but it was close enough.

He takes another step forward but between one blink and the next Itachi is gone. Kakashi sighs in disappointment but Itachi staying for even that long and not making a move to attack him was more than he expected. He turns to his practice tree and wonders if his eye will start bleeding if he tries to use Kamui one more time. He shakes his head and decides to call it a day and return to his hotel; he has to prepare for his next meeting with Itachi.

* * *

Eight days later when Kakashi is training again, Itachi returns. They are standing in exactly the same spots as before and it feels like their previous conversation never ended, had merely been paused. Kakashi briefly contemplates the idea that he’s been under a genjutsu this whole time but quickly disregards it; it doesn’t really matter.

“What are you hoping to accomplish by staying in Akatsuki?” Kakashi asks before Itachi can say anything. His first priority is figuring out Itachi’s motivations; he needs to figure out where to apply pressure.

“They are a means to an end. As all things are.”

“The Itachi-kun I knew was always eager to take the less bloody route. I remember multiple missions where it was you who prevented me from unnecessarily killing targets,” he says, looking for any kind of reaction.

They aren’t his fondest memories, his first time around in ANBU, but he no longer denies those parts of himself. He might not necessarily be at peace with them, but he acknowledges the fact that his time there had helped forge him into the man he was today. Although, maybe in the months between Naruto leaving Konoha and Nise coming into his life he had had a bit of a slip up as they weren’t his best either.

“You may believe that you are drowning in blood, Kakashi-san, but for all your faults you have always managed to keep your head above ground,” Itachi says, his voice apathetic, as he were commenting on the weather.

And with those words something clicks into place in Kakashi’s head and Nise’s convoluted explanation of Itachi’s actions suddenly makes sense. He thinks he understands what Nise doesn’t, what Nise can’t comprehend because for all his _wrongness_ the man was just so _good_.

Kakashi tilts his head. “You are looking for punishment,” he says softly.

Itachi’s face gives nothing away but his indifference and silence speak volumes.

And suddenly Itachi makes so much sense and questions Kakashi hadn’t even thought of are suddenly answered. Because he’s been there himself, buried so deep in guilt and self-hatred that death seemed to be the only way out. Kakashi’s chest tightens and he hates the thought that, if Nise had never thought to contact Itachi, had never said anything, Itachi would have killed himself because he loved too much.

“You want Sasuke to be your punishment; you’re atonement for slaughtering your clan.” Kakashi can see it so clearly now. “Sasuke would be hailed a hero for killing Clan Killer Itachi.” He takes a step closer. “But you’re _wrong_ Itachi. Sasuke has gone to Orochimaru and Konoha will not forgive him easily. He will destroy himself trying to kill you. Itachi you _must_ see that whatever plans you’ve made, they’ve already failed. Take Tsunade-sama’s pardon. You can still come home. You can save Sasuke.”

Itachi is quiet, his face paler than normal. “You are as optimistic as ever, Kakashi-san,” he bites out, his with more emotion than Kakashi has ever heard before. He dissolves into a murder of crows and Kakashi wonders if Itachi was ever even in Kawa. He goes back to his hotel and plans his next move.

* * *

Almost two months after parting ways with Kakashi finds Nise lying in the grass in Kumo, trying to sleep off his frustration and grief. He had run as fast as he could to Iwa but he was too slow in finding Kokuou and Han. He had finally learned from a genin, just young and foolhardy enough to answer a stranger’s questions, that they had disappeared weeks ago.

And when he had arrived in Taki, Fu’s body had still been warm, Choumei already stolen away. He had been sick upon hearing the way some of villagers had rejoiced at their deaths, had readily enough told him how they had willingly given Fu over to the men in red cloud cloaks that had come asking about them. It wasn’t every villager, but even one person was too many.

Nise didn’t think that any of the bijuu had been captured this early before but he honestly didn’t know. When he and Kakashi had traveled to Kiri they had passed straight through Kawa. If he had just stopped for a moment then he might have been able to reach Fu and Choumei in time. Had Tobi accelerated the Akatsuki’s plan because he had seen them in Kiri?

The breeze blows through Nise’s hair and he wishes for the nth time that Kakashi was lying next to him, providing that extra sense of security. But he’s not so he tries to focus on all the good of the past few weeks. He had found the others, had given the bijuu’s their future-memories and had helped them form a better connection with their vessels He had explained the threat that was after them and told them of the place in Kumo that they might visit if they ever needed help.

As he tries to sleep, the wind carries Yugito and Utakata’s voices over to him. They’re not-arguing in calm tones over village allegiances; a common occurrence Nise’s noted in the two days he’s been here, a result of their similar personalities clashing. He gives it another five minutes before they drop their calm facades and just start yelling at each other.

“My little ten-tails!” Killer B’s loud voice abruptly cuts through the noise, seemingly unconcerned with disturbing Nise’s sleep. “We’re super grateful for what you’ve done here, you fool. But Big Brother says he’s going to kill you if another not-Kumo nin comes here, yo!”

Nise looks up at the older jinchuuriki leaning over him and smiles. “Ah, sorry about that. If if makes him feel any better I’m certain Gaara, the Ichibi’s jinchuuriki, isn’t ever going to come here.”

“You fool! Gyuuki and I welcome all bijuu here! It breaks our heart to hear about Gobi—”

“B!!” A raspy voice yells, furious.

B’s whole body straightens up in attention. “Oh shit! Big Brother isn’t happy, you fool!”

“B! What the hell is this kid doing here!”

Nise looks over to see the Raikage a few feet away holding a squirming Naruto by the collar of his jumpsuit.

“Let me down old man! I told you I’m looking for Killer B!”

“Naruto?” Nise says in shock as he scrambles to stand up. “Where’s Jiraiya?” he asks confused. When he had arrived in Kumo he had expected Naruto to be here already but he hadn’t been too concerned when B had told him he hadn’t even heard of him. Jiraiya had said that he wanted to teach Naruto a few things before he took him here. Still, Nise hadn’t expect Naruto to just show up by himself.

“Nii-san!” Naruto yells and somehow manages to squirm out of the Raikage’s grip. He turns and sticks his tongue out at A before running over to Nise. “Nii-san! That stupid Ero-sennin just left me here! He said I’m supposed to train with someone called Killer B but when I asked around about him this old man just grabbed me!”

Ignoring the Raikage’s outraged yell of “Old?!” and Killer B’s subsequent placating gestures, Nise kneels down next to Naruto. “Naruto, that old man is the Raikage, A-sama. He’s very kindly given us permission us stay here so you should be more respectful to him,” he says, ruffling Naruto’s hair.

“No way, that old man is a Kage!?” Naruto yells, oblivious to the fact that the only reason he’s still standing is because Killer B and Yugito are holding A back.

Though now that Nise’s looking, it kind of looks like A is aiming for him as well. And maybe Nise should have given A or Killer B a heads up before he started pointing jinchuuriki in their direction but he thought they had all moved past this. He had even let A land a solid punch on him the day he arrived.

“Yes,” Nise says to Naruto. “And Killer B is his brother. B is the jinchuuriki of the Hachibi and they can help teach you and Kurama a few things.”

“The Raikage’s own brother is a jinchuuriki?” Naruto says, eyes wide in disbelief.

Nise smiles at Naruto’s look of wonder and as much as he wants to stay here, he needs to move on. But Gaara’s carefully written reply burns a hole in his pocket and he thinks he can afford to wait for Naruto to write his own reply and make a pit stop back in Suna before he returns to Konoha.

* * *

Gaara meets him a few miles out from Suna. A green and white hat hangs from his gourd and his small smile chases away the last of Nise’s grief.

* * *

“You said you didn’t want to know anything!” Nise argues, leaping out of range of Tsunade’s fists.

“Know anything that isn’t vital! I think the Uchiha qualifies as important!” she yells, seeming unconcerned that she’s making a mess of her office.

Nise had only returned to Konoha twenty minutes ago and the second he had entered Tsunade’s office, she had given him a hug and then promptly thrown him into one of her filing cabinets. Two ANBU hover in the corner of the room, tense and ready to intervene at any moment. Though Nise honestly isn’t sure who they would restrain.

“Fine! My mistake! At least let me give you my mission report!”

Tsunade throws a chair at him and he figures he can always come back later to give his report when they’ve both calmed down. He jumps out the window, studiously ignoring Tsunade’s shout of “Use the door like a human being you heathen!”

He heads back to his apartment, which he barely remembers where it’s located since it’s been so long and he only stayed there for a week, and is relieved that the bustling crowded streets don’t overwhelm him as much as they first did. He’s still uncomfortable being around so many people but at least he doesn't have the urge to run away. He stops mid-step when he notices a lone figure lying in the middle of one of the training fields.

Nise looks up at the sky and thinks about Kakashi. The world hadn’t fallen apart with Kakashi learning some of the truth. Maybe it wouldn't hurt to have others besides Kakashi, Tsunade and Jiraiya helping out. He sighs and walks over to the man he thought he would spend the rest of his life avoiding. He sits down next to the man, wary.

“Uzumaki-san,” Shikaku says as he sits up, his voice rough with sleep.

Nise pauses at hearing his name. He’s been away from the village for three months and it seems that in that time people have come to terms with his blatant heritage and it’s something of a relief. That week before he left had been filled with unabashed stares and he’s definitely not going to miss them. But Shukaku is the first one to call him Uzumaki to his face and it eases a tightness in his chest that he didn’t even know was there.

Shikaku yawns and scratches his head. “I’m surprised to see you coming to me. Thought you would rather pluck your eyes out than talk to me or Inoichi.”

Nise carefully avoids thinking about how that was true not even five minutes ago. “Hokage-sama has a mission for you,” he says and now him and Tsunade will _really_ have to sit down and talk things out. He’ll just tack this conversation on at the end and say it was part of his plan all along.

Shikaku stares at him and Nise swears he can hear the man thinking. And maybe he should have thought this through. Missions are either handed out at the missions desk or by the Hokage themselves, not by a random shinobi in the middle of a training field, even if he was the Hokage’s so-called personal bodyguard.

“And what is this mission _you_ have for me?” Shikaku asks.

Nise magnominously ignores the man’s thinly-veiled implications and takes off his arm guard and glove to pull a scroll out from the seal on the back of his right hand. He had made the scroll months ago, intending to give it to Jiraiya whenever he returned from Ame so that he could handle this problem next. And his last bit of doubt about this fades away as he realizes just how much he would have put on Jiraiya’s shoulders.

This is the right choice. “Memorize and then destroy this,” he says as he hands the scroll over.

Shikaku opens the scroll and looks it over, his face becoming more grim the more he reads. “This is quite troublesome. I’ll need my team and backup for this.”

Nise nods. “Only those you trust the most. This is to be known by as few people as possible.”

Shikaku gives him a long assessing look that almost makes Nise turn away. “Indeed,” he says, tucking the scroll inside his vest and standing up. “I better get started then. This should have ended years ago,” he says and starts to walk away.

“Shikaku-san!” Nise calls out, before he can think better of it. “Your son, Shikamaru. I believe him and his team will be able to provide adequate backup,” he says because he truly believes it. He doesn’t remember much about Danzo’s schemes but he knows how smart and careful the man has had to be in order to last this long. Shikaku was smart, but even at fourteen Shikamaru was a nearly unparalleled tactician.

Shikaku gives him that same assessing look. “This is quite nasty business to be involving them in,” he says and Nise feels like he’s thirteen again and being scolded by Jiraiya for slacking off. “Not trusting anyone can be as bad as trusting too many. Good day, Uzumaki-san.”

* * *

A door slamming shut wakes Nise up on his fourth day back in Konoha. He sits up from where he fell asleep last night on the couch and looks over the back of it towards his front door.

“Yo,” Kakashi says with a short wave.

“Uhhh,” Nise says groggily, blinking himself awake. His heart gives a small flutter at seeing Kakashi again but it’s quickly snuffed out when Kakashi, without another word, immediately goes to Nise’s fridge and begins rummaging through it. He opens his mouth to yell at the man when he notices someone else standing by his front door. “Is that Itachi?” he asks, pointing at Itachi.

Itachi stares at him with a blank face, his sharingan active and ominous. “I have heard much about you, Nise-san,” he says, inclining his head.

“Uhh,” Nise repeats and scrambles up off the couch. It’s an odd sight, Itachi wearing Akatsuki robes and standing in his tiny apartment. A sight which he’s not too sure what to do with. “What are you doing in my apartment?”

Itachi blinks. “The Godaime has granted me a full pardon.”

“What? She has?!” he blurts out.

Itachi’s eyes narrow and he turns to Kakashi who is now leaning against the kitchen table with a half eaten sandwich. “Maa, I asked her for a little favor,” he says with a dismissive wave. “Nise-chan just doesn’t think about stuff like that. He just likes to order people around.”

“I do not! When have—”

“Kakashi-san says you are aware of Madara’s mechanisms,” Itachi interrupts.

“ _Kakashi-san_ needs to stop gossi—”

“Yup,” Kakashi says happily, throwing an arm over Itachi’s shoulders. “While I was winning you over with my dazzling personality, Nise-chan was out doing his thing with the bijuu and the jinchuuriki so Akatsuki won’t be able to take them so easily.”

Itachi deftly steps out from under Kakashi’s arm. “I was talking to Nise-san,” he says, pointedly turning away from Kakashi and looks at Nise. “You know things.”

Nise makes another unintelligible ‘Uhh’ and looks at Kakashi who just shrugs, looking bored with the conversation. “You said to be honest with him. It’s true that you just know things,” he says, which isn’t nearly as helpful as he probably thinks it is.

“Sasuke.” Itachi says. “If I return to the village where will his anger go?”

“Return to the village? Like right now? That wasn’t the plan?” Nise looks over in confusion to Kakashi but the man is rummaging through the fridge again and not looking his way. But Nise isn’t fooled in the least; he’s certain he’s being ignored on purpose.

Itachi steps forwards, blocking Nise’s view of Kakashi and forcing his attention back to him. And it’s a little disconcerting to see how easily the two of them move and talk around each other; Nise can see how they would have been a formidable ANBU unit.

“But it is my plan,” Itachi says. “You asked for my assistance in removing the threat of Madara Uchiha but spying from within would have gained us nothing more than what I already know. I can be better utilized here than within the Akatsuki. My time there came to an end the moment I made contact with Kakashi-san.”

“But that doesn’t change the fact that we need to know the Akatsuki’s movements,” Nise argues.

“That would be a waste of time. By the time we learned about them we would not be able to relay and plan a countermove for them. It is better to simply prepare and either confront them ourselves or react to their movements.”

“I believe Itachi-kun makes a fair argument,” Kakashi throws out casually, leaning against the kitchen table again, apparently deciding it was safe to join the conversation again. “The amount of time and resources it would take to locate and track each member could be better spent on preparing to confront them.”

Nise has to swallow down his sigh of exasperation; it’s obvious that the two of them have already agreed on this and are just trying to convince him to go along with it. He eyes the two of them and really feels like they shouldn’t be so comfortable around each other. They can’t have been in each other’s company for more than a month. But then again, they were both child-geniuses and maybe that gave them some kind of freaky understanding with one another, made them more adaptable to changing circumstances or something. Nise can feel a headache coming on from talking to the two of them.

“If you think it’s for the best,” Nise relents. It would be useless to make a fuss over it. Whatever the two of them have cooked up would be infinitely better than anything he could ever plan. “But you two will have to be the ones to present all this to Baa-chan. I’ll support you but you guys have to answer any of her questions, got it?”

Itachi nods as if he had expected that answer all along. “There is still the matter of Sasuke’s safety. Kakashi-san has made compelling arguments for my return but I need assurance that something will be done to help Sasuke. His anger will not just disappear.”

Nise squirms and avoids Itachi’s red eyes. He’s purposely not thought about Sasuke for months and he’s not sure he knows how to talk about his once-friend. “Sasuke… doesn't hate you,” he says softly.

“Impossible. I made sure—”

“He still loves you,” Nise interrupts, his frustration building up. He doesn't know how to talk about Sasuke. “And when he learns the truth he will only love you more.”

“And he will hate Konoha. Exactly what I didn’t want.”

Irritation burns through Nise at Itachi’s bland expression. “It doesn’t matter what you want!” he snaps, ignoring how Kakashi takes a discrete step forward, as if to stand in between him and Itachi. “It’s about what Sasuke _needs_. And what he needs is his big brother. He’s out there right now doing who knows what with Orochimaru and he’s doing it all for you!”

Itachi eyes bore into him but he doesn't say anything, as if he’s waiting for Nise to calm down. Nise stares back defiantly and now that he’s looking for it, he can see the intensity in his eyes. He wonders how he ever though Itachi was expressionless.

“You care for him,” Itachi says.

“Naruto cares for him,” Nise quickly corrects. Then more slowly, “And I love Naruto. He will destroy himself trying to bring Sasuke back and I won’t allow that to happen. You should understand this more than anyone.”

Itachi stares at him in silence for a long time and Nise refuses to look away. He’s almost certain that Itachi has already agreed to return to Konoha and help them fight Madara and is just saying all this to test Nise on something. Kakashi comes the rest of the way to stand at his side and discretely places a comforting hand on the small of his back. The warmth of his hand grounds Nise and he’s grateful for the silent support.

“I will do everything in my power to bring down Akatsuki and protect the bijuu,” Nise says solemnly. “As for Sasuke, there are things that I simply cannot do. You must be the one to help him.” Because Nise honestly doesn’t know what to do about Sasuke. His instincts scream for him to hunt him down and kill him but he knows that’s not the answer. The Sasuke here is still human, can still possibly be saved. But Nise doesn’t think he has it in him anymore to take up that fight. He failed Sasuke once and he no idea where he went wrong and he doesn't want to make those same mistakes again.

Itachi looks away and for a moment he seems almost chastised but its gone so quickly Nise thinks he might have just imagined it. “Itachi, if it’s forgiveness you are looking for then Sasuke will give it to you.”

Itachi inclines his head and when he looks back up his face is as serious as ever. “I was made aware of the Nanabi’s capture as soon as it happened,” he says, his voice strong and honest. He goes to the kitchen and sits down at the table. “After Kakashi-san first made contact with me I searched for its location but it seems that Madara does not trust Pain as much anymore and has moved it to an unknown location. I have so far been unable to find either of the Nanabi’s or the Gobi’s locations,” he says and the next half hour is spent sitting around the kitchen table with Itachi painful accounting every detail he knows about the Akatsuki and Madara. He unflinchingly tells them what happened on the night of the Uchiha Massacre and it’s only then that he realizes that Kakashi wasn’t as comfortable around Itachi as he first thought. For some reason, the more Itachi talks, the more relaxed Kakashi becomes.

“Kakashi-san has graciously offered your apartments until Hokage-sama can find more suitable lodgings,” Itachi says when Nise asks if he will be staying in the abandoned Uchiha Compound.

“Wha—”

“Maa, Nise-chan. How did you visit all the bijuu so quickly?” Kakashi not-so-subtly interrupts.

Nise sighs and for all that he’s missed Kakashi, he’s still a pain in the ass sometimes. “I travel fast when I’m by myself,” he says and that’s enough to have Kakashi pulling out his book and retreating behind it.

Itachi shoots him a look and even though his lips don't move Nise swears it’s a smile. Nise smiles back and thinks that this might work out.

* * *

Asuma walks through the woods surrounding Konoha with his hands shoved in his pockets. He tries not to grumble but he’s certain that Gai had just played him dirty. When the energetic man had shown up, interrupting his and Kurenai’s lunch to tell them that the Hokage was requesting their presence in the Akimichi compound, he really hadn’t thought much of it. But somehow the conversation had ended with Gai headed off to the meeting, arm-in-arm with Kurenai, and him going to fetch Yugao and Hayate by himself.

He blows out a puff of smoke. The worst part, he thinks, is that Gai probably didn’t even realize he had done him dirty. The man didn’t have a dishonest bone in his body and his genuine sincerity made it hard to ever get genuinely annoyed at him.

He heads towards the area of the woods where Yugao and Hayate always seem to be hanging out and he shudders to think what those two could be getting up to. Stumbling upon them half naked one time had been more than enough for him to want to avoid the pair on their downtime as much as possible. He makes his footsteps heavier, hoping they will notice him before he notices them.

Ever since the two of them were caught up in that mess half a year ago they had become just about inseparable. When they had been locked up in T&I, Hayate had missed the chunin exams and the ensuing invasion. They had all been surprised when, upon being released, he had immediately joined ANBU. Something about not wanting to waste time by being away from Yugao.

Yugao had always been one of the more sane ones in Asuma’s opinion, a miracle considering she joined ANBU at such a young age and had Kakashi as a captain. But having a healthy relationship with a fellow ANBU made her something of an oddball. But they had managed so far and Asuma admired their optimistic youth and love. It was impossible to be anything less than happy for them, especially when his own love life was going so well. Though he really could do without all their public displays of affection.

Two figures jump down in front of him. “Asuma-san,” the Cat ANBU says.

“Yugao, Hayate,” he says, relieved beyond belief that they weren’t doing anything inappropriate. “Hokage-sama is requesting your presence. If you’ll follow me.”

“What’s this about?” Hayate asks, his mouse ANBU mask slightly muffling his voice.

“Don’t know,” he says, and he honestly doesn’t. But he knows it can’t be good. He’s never heard of a Hokage holding a meeting in a clan’s compound before. “All I know is that it’s urgent and classified.”

They walk the rest of the way in silence and it’s still odd that they can do that. Every shinobi in Konoha had grown used to Hayate’s constant coughing and it was discerning to see the man breathe without difficulty. He side-eyes the two ANBU to see them walking so close to one another that the back of their hands brush every few steps. While all Konoha shinobi were loyal to their village, it was common knowledge that since Tsunade had healed Hayate’s lungs, they were near fanatical in their dedication to the Godaime.

Asuma chews on his cigarette. Whatever this was about, the Hokage was making sure to gather only her most loyal.

The Akimichi Clan has always been more welcoming to visitors than the other clans but the guards posted at the compound’s entrance don’t so much as glance at them as they pass through the gates. Neither Yugao or Hayate comment but Asuma can feel them straighten up slightly, become more alert.

Asuma leads them straight to Chouza’s home and as he walks inside it’s hard to ignore the swirling black ink that covers the outside of the house. It looks more complex than the few privacy seals Asuma saw his father use during his more confidential meetings. They head into the back of the house, into one of the large conference rooms, to see about a dozen people sitting around a long rectangular table, the Hokage sitting regaly at the head instead of Chouza. The Akimichi Head sits further down the table with his teammates, his face serious.

Asuma spots Kurenai sitting next to Gai, an empty seat between them. Kurenai smiles at him and pats the empty spot. Asuma’s heart flutters and he wonders if he’ll ever build up an immunity to her smile. He pats Hayate on the shoulder and goes to sit down.

Asuma looks around and recognizes everyone gathered but for two ANBU; one wears an ocelot mask and sits next to Genma while the other wears a weasel mask and stands behind the Hokage. It seems like the three of them are the last ones here, even Kakashi is already here, sitting beside the Uzumaki.

“Now that we're all here,” Tsunade says and stands up. “You have been called here today because I have a very important mission for all of you. One which will not be spoken about outside of these walls. If any of you wish to leave do it now.”

No one says anything or even so much as moves. Except for Hiashi who casually sips his tea. Asuma looks to Kakashi for some kind of hint of what’s going on but his friend’s attention is focused on the Uzumaki next to him.

“Good. Nise, if you will,” Tsunade says and Nise is already up and heading towards the closest wall.

Nise makes a few hand signs and then places his hands flat on the wall. Black ink spreads out from his palms and crawls up the walls to form intricate designs that look like the seals Asuma saw on the outside of the building. When all four walls are covered in seals, Nise withdraws his hands and the ink slowly sinks into the walls and disappears. He turns and bows to the Hokage. “It’s safe to speak now,” he says and returns to his seat.

Asuma resists the urge to whistle. That’s an impressive bit of fuuinjutsu.

Tsunade sits back down and Asuma is honestly trying to listen carefully as she tells them about the terrorist group Akatsuki but he keeps getting distracted by Kakashi. The Uzumaki stands up again to pass out scrolls that contain information on the Akatsuki members and Kakashi hasn’t once looked away from the man.

“Their ultimate goal is to extract all the bijuu in order—”

Asuma gently nudges Kurenai with his elbow. When she meets his eyes he discreetly nods his head in Kakashi’s direction.

“—work in pairs, but are each dangerous individuals who should not—”

Kurenai throws him a look he doesn't have time to decipher before the Uzumaki is behind them, holding a scroll out to Kurenai. She looks up at the redhead with a shy smile and bats her eyelashes at him. And even though the look isn’t directed at him, Asuma almost chokes. He’s never seen her act so coy before and he fervently throws a prayer of thanks out for that. He would never win any of their arguments if she looked at him like that.

Nise gives her an odd look but smiles back and nods. Asuma whips his head around to see Kakashi’s reaction and actually does choke at the sight of Kakashi’s narrowed eye.

Gai gives him a hard slap on the back. “Are You Okay Most Dear Friend?” he asks in what is really not as quiet a voice as he probably thinks. “Perhaps Not Smoking Might Help You Better Breathe? I Can—”

Asuma waves him off and tries to make himself as inconspicuous as possible.

“I don’t see Itachi Uchiha’s name on this,” Hiashi says.

“Itachi is no longer part of Akatsuki,” Nise says as he sits back down. “He was the one who provided this—”

Asuma stares wide-eyed as Kakashi angles his body towards the redhead. There can’t be more than a few centimeters between their crossed legs. This time it’s Kurenai that nudges him. He meets her questioning expression with one of his own.

“Then who was responsible for the Uchiha Mass—”

Kurenai leans over and whispers in his ear. “Are you seeing what I’m seeing?”

He shrugs and turns his head to whisper back. “I didn’t even know Kakashi liked people like that.”

“Do you think they’re...you know…?” Kurenai raises her eyebrows and widens her eyes to make a expression that accurately captures how Asuma is feeling about the whole situation.

He looks back at Kakashi. Elite shinobi all had their odd coping mechanisms and quirks, but Kakashi had always been a particularly eccentric one. He’s known the other man for a long time, and while he knows all about his fighting style, it’s difficult to say much about the man’s personal life. Though it was mostly because the man worked pretty hard to not have one.

“It will take time for people to come to terms with a full-pardon—”

If it weren’t for Gai dragging Kakashi into competitions, or him and Genma forcing him to go out, the man would probably spend all of his time on missions or reading erotica. As it was, Asuma knows everything there is to know about Kakashi’s meager personal life. And he can confidently say that he’s never seen the man so much as take a second glance at another person. In fact, he’s been operating under the impression that the man didn’t even have those kinds of urges. Despite his inappropriate public reading material, Kakashi always became extremely embarrassed whenever someone brought anything remotely sexual up.

“Each of you will be put on a team and assigned an Akatsuki member. However, you should be prepared for any one of them. When the time is right, you will be called upon to—”

It had become a point of amusement for Anko when she was drunk. She would regale her sexual exploits in extreme detail and Kakashi’s blushes and embarrassed mumbling at her lewdness never failed to crack her up.

“Ino-Shika-Cho will handle Kakuzu. Hiashi Hyuuga, Yugao Uzuki and Atama Inuzuka are assigned Diedra—”

He turns back to Kurenai. “I doubt it. I doubt he even knows...” Asuma trails off as horror shoots through his body. Kakashi is so emotionally stunted that he probably doesn’t even realize he likes Nise. He mentally curses as he realizes that someone is probably going to have sit Kakashi down and explain to him what a crush feels like.

“The Kazekage and Might Gai are assigned Sasori of the Red Sand. Kisame will be handled by Yamato, Asuma Sarutobi and Kurenai Yuhi.”

Asuma jolts at their names and Kurenai lays her hand on his knee, nodding to the ANBU sitting next to Hiashi. The man nods back at them but doesn’t take off his ocelot mask. “Doubt he even knows what?” she whisper, squeezing his knee to bring his attention back to her.

“—is handling Pain and Konan as we speak. Tobi will be handled by Nise Uzumaki and Kaka—”

Asuma looks to Kakashi and the man is still staring at Nise. “I don’t think he knows he likes him. You know, _like that_ ,” he says and watches in horror as Kakashi reaches over and tugs on a piece of Nise’s hair to get his attention. Asuma looks away and rubs his temples, embarrassed on behalf of his friend. Kakashi flirts like a twelve year old.

“Oh dear,” Kurenai says, her voice straining to hold back her laughter. She takes her hand off his knee to cover her smile. “He’s pulling his pigtails.”

“—Zetsu is currently unassigned as Itachi has been unable—”

“Oh good, he likes him back,” Kurenai whispers, nudging him with her elbow. “Look.”

Asuma forces himself to look back at the two. Nise is leaned over, hand braced on Kakashi’s knee, as Kakashi whispers something in his ear. Nise smiles at whatever Kakashi says and then leans away, leaving his hand on Kakashi’s knee. Just as Kurenai’s hand had been on his moments earlier.

Asuma spends the rest of the meeting determinedly listening to Tsunade and decidedly not looking at the truly atrocious flirting Kakashi and Nise are attempting.

When the meeting is over and everyone starts to leave he drags Kurenai over with him to find Genma. He’s not about to confront Kakashi alone about his and, while he would normally go to Gai about anything Kakashi-sensitive, he doesn’t think Gai would be able to handle this with the same finesse as Genma could.

But Genma finds them first and before Asuma can say anything he is already talking to them. “That’s pretty wild, Itachi Uchiha being innocent this whole time.”

“What?” he and Kurenai ask at the same time.

* * *

Nise sits with his eyes closed in the Forest of Death but he also sits in a sewer, leaning against Choumei’s armored head. She’s been rather clingy since they found Fu’s body and Nise has made a point of lying close to her whenever he comes here. He absentmindedly strokes one of Matatabi’s tails that lies across his lap.

Kokuou lays asleep a bit away, tails intertwined with a similarly sleeping Isobu and Saiken. A few miles away Gyuuki, Son Gokuu and Shukaku jump and growl, playing some weird game that Nise doesn't understand no matter how many time Saiken explains it to him. He occasionally hears Kurama yelling insults and pointing out supposed fouls, acting more as an instigator than a referee. Nise closes his eyes and basks in everyone’s chakra.

But even deeply emerged in his seal and saturating himself in bijuu chakra he can still sense Itachi’s calm presence near him as the Uchiha goes through his katas.

Perhaps the biggest surprise to Nise since being thrown back in time is how well he and Itachi get along. With Itachi sleeping on his couch, they had quickly discovered that they both woke up early and liked to spend the mornings doing their own forms of meditation. So it had only been natural for Nise to suggest that they meditate together.

Nise knew Itachi didn’t have any friends and that, regardless of the fact that he wasn’t allowed out of the apartment without his ANBU mask on, he wasn’t likely to make any anytime soon. Nise liked to think that by going with the Uchiha he was alleviating some of the loneliness that Itachi must have. Or maybe he was using Itachi to alleviate some of his own loneliness. Nonetheless, for the past week they have been keeping each other company in the mornings and more often than not their meditation sessions turned into just them talking.

Even now Nise twitches with the urge to talk to Itachi. He’s been meditating for almost thirty minutes which he thinks is an appropriate amount of time. He turns to look at Choumei to see if she’s fallen asleep yet. Her eyes are shut and her breathing is steady so he pulls himself out of the seal and turns to Itachi. “So what you’re saying is that you were already planning to meet with us anyway? Before Kakashi approached you?”

Itachi doesn’t respond, just continues through his katas. He doesn't even bother to look over and give him one of his signature blank looks. Not that it would do much good with his weasel mask on, but still.

“I mean I know you’re supposed to be like a super genius and everything, but there’s no way you could have known Kakashi was going to come looking for you. We didn’t even plan that till like the day before.”

Itachi sighs and, like always, abandons his katas to come over and sit next to him. “I saw you with Jiraiya-sama,” he says.

Nise scrunches his face up in confusion. “There’s no way none of us wouldn’t have sensed you,” he argues.

“Not in person,” Itachi says which doesn’t clarify anything at all.

“Okay,” Nise says and mourns the fact that his new-probably-friend answers questions even more vaguely than Kakashi. “How did you know we were even there in the first place?”

When Itachi doesn’t answer Nise looks over to see his weasel mask facing him, tilted in what he swears is confusion. “What?” he asks defensively.

“Your legs are in my lap.”

Nise looks down and sure enough, they are. “Oh,” he says surprised. “I thought you were Kakashi...uh...wait...No...I mean...” Nise scratches his head, genuinely confused as to how his legs got there.

Nise yelps when Itachi pinches his thigh. And yeah, maybe he deserves that for such a nonsense explanation but as he tries to think of an excuse he just can’t. He honestly has no idea why he thought this kind of physical contact was okay.

He goes to move his legs but Itachi halts him with a hand on his knee. “It’s fine,” Itachi says. “I was keeping tabs on Naruto-kun. You two would not have drawn my attention if you had not visited him.”

“You were watching Naruto? Wait how does that equal you deciding to leave Akatsuki?”

“I knew you two were planning something, that you were teaching the jinchuuriki something. I had already decided to leave Akatsuki before I met with Kakashi-san.”

“Why did you want to meet with Kakashi anyways?”

“I went to see what he was offering.”

Nise continues with his questions but Itachi’s answers become more and more vague until he eventually just stops talking. But Nise doesn’t mind, he figured out a few days ago that Itachi was unaccustomed to talking for too long and he usually just gives up after a while. Though he normally lasts a little longer than this. Nise’s been keeping track and the longest Itachi’s kept up a conversation was fourteen minutes forty three seconds. The topic had been food.

They sit in silence for a bit and when Nise gets tired of sitting he lies down, resting his head on one of Itachi’s thighs. If Itachi feels awkward with the sudden increased physical contact he makes no comment on it. Nise has just started to drift back into sleep when a loud laugh pierces through the silence.

Nise jerks up in surprise just as an enthusiastic Gai and Lee burst out from between the trees chased by an angry Neji.

“That Is The Spirit My Esteemed Student!” Gai yells in encouragement as he deftly dodges Neji’s chakra infused palm thrust.

“Ah! Is That You Young Nise-San?” Gai asks as he comes to a screeching halt in front of him. “I Have Heard Much About You From My Eternal Rival But He Refuses To Properly Introduce Us. I Am Konoha’s Sublime Green Beast! Might Gai At Your Service!” He gives a winning smile and a thumbs up.

“It’s nice to meet you Gai-san. Kakashi has told me a lot about you,” Nise lies.

Gai’s eyes start to water. “Of Course He Has We Are Eternal Rivals! Ah! How Rude Of Me.” He turns and bows to Itachi. “Hello, ANBU-San. Are You A Friend Of Nise-San As Well?”

Itachi stands and gives an overly formal bow back. “Yes,” he says solemnly. “Nise-san has become a dear friend.”

Nise looks at Itachi and tries not to let his shock show, because what? He had hoped that they were becoming friends but he hadn’t known Itachi felt the same way, much less that he would say that to someone else. “Actually, Gai-san,” Nise interrupts before Itachi can say anything else weird, “Kakashi was just talking about how he wanted to test his endurance on you. If you head over to the Hokage’s tower I’m sure you can catch up with him.”

“Yosh! I Am On My Way!” Gai yells into the air and runs off towards the center of the village.

“Ah, Gai-sensei!” Lee yells. “Wait for me!” He gives them each a quick bow and with a rushed “Nice to meet you” he too runs off.

“Kakashi-san will not easily forgive you for this,” Itachi says as soon as Lee is gone.

Neji steps in front of Nise and gives a bow that threatens to rival Itachi’s in terms of stiffness. “Uzumaki-san,” he says, seeming unconcerned that his sensei and teammate have essentially abandoned him. “I have heard a lot about you.” His eyes stray towards Itachi, his byakugan still active. His eyes narrow as he inclines his head, “ANBU-san.”

“Neji Hyuuga right?” Nise says, standing up and trying to take the attention off Itachi. “Naruto has told me much about you,” he lies again.

Neji gives him a long look. “You are Naruto’s cousin,” he says, his voice almost accusing.

“Yes, and you are Hinata-chan’s cousin.”

Neji’s narrowed eyes are practically glaring now. “And what of it?” he asks, defensive.

“Nothing, nothing,” he says quickly, raising his hands in innocence. He has no idea how to talk to this Neji and this trainwreck of a conversation abruptly reminds him why he hasn’t made an effort to see any of the Konoha 11. Nise’s adjusted well enough that he won’t break down at seeing them but he’s been here long enough to realize that he doesn't have anything in common with them.

Neji eyes stray to Itachi again and they turn from guarded to suspicious.

“Did you need anything, Neji-kun?” Nise asks as politely as he can despite the unease building in his stomach. There was no reason for Neji to look at Itachi like that, surely he didn’t know who was behind the weasel mask? He knew that the byakugan only showed chakra pathways so there was no reason-- Nise stiffens. Did dojutsu user’s chakra pathways look different?

Nise blinks and Neji is suddenly lunging towards him, his palm held out.

Nise can see Neji’s hand aiming for the chakra points on his chest but he is so caught off guard that it doesn't even occur to him to strike back and defend himself. Even the bijuu in him aren’t paying attention.

But then Itachi is standing in front of him, holding Neji’s arm and forcing his attack to a halt. “Desist,” Itachi says, his voice as monotone as ever.

Nise’s heart pounds in his ears as he tries to figure out why the hell Neji had just tried to attack him.

Neji stares hard at the weasel mask. “I see,” he says and Nise has the terrible feeling that he really does. Neji backs away without a fight and gives them a small bow, less formal than the first time. “Have a good day, Uzumaki-san, ANBU-san.” And then he walks off in the direction Gai and Lee had gone without looking back.

Nise groans and wonders if it’s worth the mental energy to ask Itachi what just happened. He sits back down on the ground with a huff. He’d forgotten that Neji was a genius as well.

* * *

Nise lets his chakra flow through his body without fear, the seals he set up around the training ground ensuring that his chakra won’t be detected, and it makes him feel like he can single-handedly take on the whole world. A kunai comes flying for his head and he easily knocks it away with one of his three chakra tails. He waves his tails around in joy, happy to let some excess energy off.

A mud wall raises behind him and Kakashi is running straight towards him, Raikiri in one hand. Nise swings a tail at him but Kakashi doesn’t stop running as the tail is suddenly being warped away before it even comes close to him.

Nise opens his mouth and forms a Beast Ball as he swings another tail at Kakashi. His tail hits Kakashi in the chest but he dissolves into a mass of electricity, nothing more than a clone. The real Kakashi bursts through the mud wall behind him, Raikiri in hand, but Nise is ready for him. He turns and releases his Beast Ball at him.

The Beast Ball warps away and Kakashi is only a few feet away from him, too close for comfort. Nise swings a tail at Kakashi but it’s warped away almost the second he makes the decision to do it. Nise grins and jumps back, Kakashi’s Raikiri missing his head by centimeters.

Kakashi stands there panting, sweat making his skin glisten. “Damn,” he gasps out and closes his left eye. “One more time and I might pass out.”

Nise laughs and goes over towards him. “You’ve been practicing! You used four clones—”

His last tail is warped away and then he’s being tackled to the ground by a Kakashi who is definitely not about to pass out.

They wrestle and roll around on the ground and just when Nise gets the upper hand Kakashi throws all his honor to the wind and starts to tickle him. Nise’s hysterical laughter causes him to quickly lose his advantage and when Kakashi sits on his stomach he calls out his surrender inbetween painful gasps.

“Gotcha,” Kakashi says, his chest heaving from exertion.

Nise lets the last of his chakra cloak disappear and pouts. “You cheated!” he cries out.

Kakashi hunches over him, supporting himself with both hands on either side of Nise’s shoulders. “Not my fault you underestimated me.”

Nise can’t fight back his smile. “Four times Kakashi! That’s amazing in such a short time!” he says and Kakashi’s face is so close to his own that Nise can clearly see how his praise brings a light blush to Kakashi’s cheeks.

Kakashi stares down at him, his right pupil blown wide and a drop of blood slowly leaking from his left eye. He’s still panting and Nise thinks that he would be able to feel the warmth of his breath if he wasn’t wearing his mask.

The blood threatens to touch Kakashi’s mask so, without thinking, Nise reaches up and wipes it away with his thumb. “You’re amazing,” he says, his voice barely more than a whisper. They’re so close that he would only have to lean up a few inches for his lips to touch covered ones. Kakashi’s eyes flicker downwards and that’s enough for Nise.

Nise raises his head up and closes the distance between their lips. He feels the brush of soft fabric and at Kakashi’s sharp inhale he presses his lips harder against Kakashi’s clothed ones. But it’s barely been a second when he feels Kakashi stiffen and a second later he’s pulling away.

They stare at each other with wide eyes and even though it was nothing more than a peck on the lips, Nise’s body is on fire. He’s sure his face must be bright red and while Kakashi’s might not be panting any longer, Nise’s sure is. In fact, it looks like Kakashi isn’t even breathing.

“Um, do you want to go grab something to eat,” he says, trying to get Kakashi to breath again. Though he doesn't blame the man for his shocked state. If Nise stops for a second to think about what he just did he thinks he might spontaneously combust. “I mean, it’s dinner time… I think.”

Kakashi closes his left eye. “You’re buying.”

* * *

Shikaku sits in the shadows of the corner of the Hokage’s office, watching the ANBU guards hidden around the room as they watch over Tsunade. He hasn’t shared the details of the mission with anyone but Inoichi and Chouza and when they had been suggesting who to bring in for support, Inoichi had suggest Tsunade’s ANBU guard. Shikaku has been watching them for two weeks to see if they can be trusted. He had tagged one of them, Bear, last  week.

There’s a sharp knock on the door and then Danzo is walking in before Tsunade can give permission. Shikaku grits his teeth in annoyance as the man walks in like he owns the place.

“Danzo. What do you want?” Tsunade asks without looking up from the mission report she’s reading.

Danzo casually sits down, again without permission, and folds his arm over his lap. “You’re bodyguard hasn’t been doing much guarding since his return,” he says, completely skipping any pleasantries or formalities. “In fact, rumor is that he spends the majority of his time with Kakashi Hatake and doesn't do much else.”

Tsunade doesn’t look up and continues scribbling something on the report. Shikaku thinks she’s doing much better at this job than she gives herself credit for.

“Nise is by my side when he is needed,” Tsunade says, her voice blatantly dismissive.

Danzo leans forward with a disapproving frown. “Chasing each other around the village playing games every few days isn’t an appropriate use of such a resource. The Council is concerned that—”

“The Council spoke their concerns months ago and they were laid to rest,” Tsunade interrupts firmly, finally looking up.

“We were under the assumption that ‘bodyguard’ meant he would be with you and under your control. Not going out on missions and dallying around with—”

“Nise is still acting under my orders.”

“He is a threat to Konoha!” Danzo shouts, standing up.

There. Shikaku’s eyes dart to the Bear ANBU. Every single ANBU had tensed up and leaned forward at Danzo’s outburst, ready to intervene and protect the Hokage. All but that one. And while he mentally clears the rest of the ANBU from suspicion, he discards them as possible support. There was no way he could bring in only part of them without Bear becoming suspicious.

“He obviously holds your confidence,” Danzo says, and while he’s not shouting anymore his voice holds poorly concealed rage. “But he’s out running around in every country doing who knows what. What was he doing in Suna with the Kazekage? Reports have him in Kiri and then days later the Mizukage resigns? He’s playing at politics which he—”

“Danzo!” Tsunade slams her hands on the desk and stands up. “Sensei and Minato might have been too nice to tell you your place but I am not them. I am only going to tell you this once.” She leans forward. “Konoha does not need nor want your brand of safety.”

Shikaku tenses and pulls the shadows a little tighter around him. He’s only been doing solo recon so far but if the Hokage spooks Danzo then there’s a high possibility that he will destroy any evidence or go back and tie up possible loose ends, leaving them with nothing to charge him with. 

“I suggest you keep to your own,” Tsunade says.

Danzo frowns but as he stands up to make his leave he doesn’t look too concerned by Tsunade’s attitude. “I have protected this village through two Hokages who didn’t have the guts to do what had to be done. You may think you are different Godaime, but you are just as soft.” He stops at the door and turns around. “I will always look out for this village’s best interests,” he says.

“As will I,” Tsunade promises and then Danzo is gone.

Shikaku makes a few hand signs and feels his body being dragged along the shadows till he’s standing on the streets outside the Hokage’s tower. The moon shines bright overhead and he resists the urge to sigh as he heads to Chouza’s home where he knows him and Inoichi will be.

This whole thing was just becoming more and more troublesome. If Danzo had managed to place a spy in one of the most heavily vetted ANBU sections then there really was no guarantee on who they could trust. Shikaku thinks over Nise’s parting words for the thousandth time. While he didn’t like the idea of his son’s team providing the backup they desperately needed, there didn’t seem to be many other options.

This time Shikaku doesn't try to hold back his sigh. Hopefully Chouza and Inoichi won’t hurt him too much when he suggests them.


End file.
